We are very pleased to have Ramon Folch González (Arizona State University) join us in February.
Title: Frans Blom in Chiapas, Mexico & the World: recovering information on art, looters and collections (1943-1963) from local archival sources
Abstract: This paper analyses the role played by Frans Blom in the Mesoamerican antiquities trade in Chiapas during the 1940's and 50's trough the unpublished documents stored in the Na Bolom Museum archives. The details of Blom's life are very well known and the sheer size of his archives allows us to learn his opinions and instances where he collaborated with collectors as well. There are few anthropologists whose life is as documented as Blom's and this is a way to understand how ambivalent some postures were towards collectionism and looting in the early days of Mexican anthropology. I consider Blom played a crucial role in delaying the looting phenomenon in Chiapas until the 1960's, his letters show him well informed about looting and his broad network of friends and acquaintances allowed him to denounce what he considered wrongdoing. The rich archives at Na Bolom also inform us about the contextual information of many museum objects both in Mexico and overseas, in some cases museum director would ask Blom for advice about an object and his opinion would be taken for granted, some of the contextual information in museums to this days can be traced to an informed opinion by Blom. tracing the little contributions made by scholars to museum collection via correspondence sheds light on the great complex network of knowledge transmission during the mid-XXth century. This case can serve as an illustrative example to study the life of other historical figures and study them beyond their published works.
Our commentators will be Matteo Bortolini (Università di Padua) and Sam Holley-Klein (University of Maryland).
Date
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