A Looted Pre-Columbian Artifact is Returned in Brooklyn

July 4, 2021 4:29 PM

The Brooklyn Museum has returned 1305 looted artifacts to Costa Rica, following the 2011 return of approximately 983 pieces. The Museum is returning approximately one third of the 16,000 looted artifacts transferred to the Museum by Minor Keith, an early 20th century railway and plantation owner who co-founded the United Fruit Company.
posted by jedicus (16 comments total)

You use the loaded term "loot" twice and the articles you link to never use this term. Now as a co-founder of the United Fruit Company we can probably find a lot of things to pillory him on, but whether intentional or not he kept an incredibly large cache of pre-Columbian artifacts from being sold haphazardly as trinkets or entering the black market. It is great they're going back to Costa Rica, preserved and cataloged though.

(Also of note, the United Fruit Company's logo was of a shotgun and it simply said "Bananas" ?! I have to give golden age Capitalism credit, they didn't really need to cover things up in corporate speak)
posted by geoff. at 8:08 PM on July 4, 2021 [4 favorites]

You use the loaded term "loot" twice and the articles you link to never use this term.

Reuters used the term in its coverage: "Tycoon Minor Keith brought the artifacts, looted during the construction of a railway, to the United States in the 19th or early 20th century, along with shipments of bananas."
posted by jedicus at 8:18 PM on July 4, 2021 [7 favorites]

Now as a co-founder of the United Fruit Company we can probably find a lot of things to pillory him on, but whether intentional or not he kept an incredibly large cache of pre-Columbian artifacts from …

If I rob a bank and then, later, the bank burns down … I still robbed the bank. Accidentally saving artifacts from other fates doesn't change the moral valence of your villainy.
posted by wemayfreeze at 8:30 PM on July 4, 2021 [12 favorites]

but whether intentional or not he kept an incredibly large cache of pre-Columbian artifacts from being sold haphazardly as trinkets or entering the black market.

The black market? You mean where people sell stolen items?

He didn't acquire these items honestly. He stole them from the people of Costa Rica. He smuggled them to to the US using his own trains and on his own boats. He was the black market.

Let's not even get into how Minor was arguably a mass murderer, given that the working conditions on his railroad were so poor that thousands of people died in its construction, and the conditions of his bananas farms were so appalling that they lowered male life expectancy in Costa Rica.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 10:12 PM on July 4, 2021 [8 favorites]

I mean if you truly think Minor Keith expatriated all these things because he merely wished to preserve them against the uncivilized ravening hordes, I can only assume you think the KKK are a social club that are just very enthusiastic about white linen and low case 't's and by pure happenstance also enjoy the warm tones of a nice outdoor fire.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 10:17 PM on July 4, 2021 [10 favorites]

He acquired them legally before the 1938 law passed that forbid taking artifacts.

I'm not sure what legality has to do with whether something counts as looting or not. Lots of things were legal then.
posted by CrystalDave at 11:36 PM on July 4, 2021 [4 favorites]

Mod note: One deleted. Geoff. please drop the derail.
posted by taz (staff) at 12:18 AM on July 5, 2021 [2 favorites]

geoff.: he kept an incredibly large cache of pre-Columbian artifacts from being sold haphazardly as trinkets or entering the black market. It is great they're going back to Costa Rica, preserved and cataloged though.

Costa Rica has had a national museum since the late 1880s. That’s where those artifacts belonged.
posted by Kattullus at 12:25 AM on July 5, 2021 [4 favorites]

I'm not sure what legality has to do with whether something counts as looting or not.

By definition, everything. Whether the taking and holding is moral or practical or has the best chance of preserving the objects for the future (and whether that matters) are entirely different issues.
posted by BWA at 5:04 AM on July 5, 2021

Why only one third?
posted by signal at 6:00 AM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

I think Keith had a collection numbering around 16k total but that collection was distributed amongst several museums so the Brooklyn Museum didn't have all 16k. Obviously those other institutions should be taking similar steps.

If the Brooklyn Museum still has part of the former collection it's possible the [Costa Rican] National Museum lacks the resources to accept all the artifacts at once and so they are shipping them as fast as they can accept them.
posted by Mitheral at 6:56 AM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

I think its interesting the amount of controversy this has generated when initial response was only one of word usage, and fundamentally conceded every single point that had not yet even been raised in response.
posted by hwestiii at 9:41 AM on July 5, 2021

That this is controversial, today, is surprising. That some of the artifacts are probably not genuine, but are actually 20th century forgeries intended for international sale, is also interesting to think about, in the abstract. (Cheers for the return, however imperfect.)
posted by eotvos at 11:38 AM on July 5, 2021

1/3 is too little
posted by Tom-B at 3:02 PM on July 5, 2021

That this is controversial, today, is surprising.

I don't know that it is controversial, so to speak. But it certainly is notable, especially in light of the repeated refusal of institutions like the British Museum to return their vast stores of stolen and looted artifacts.

I'd highly recommend Stuff the British Stole for more on this.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:59 PM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

If the Brooklyn Museum still has part of the former collection it's possible the [Costa Rican] National Museum lacks the resources to accept all the artifacts at once and so they are shipping them as fast as they can accept them.

Only a very cynical person would suggest an alternative explanation: that the Brooklyn Museum is keeping the most valuable pieces for itself and returning the less valuable ones to Costa Rica.
posted by verstegan at 11:42 PM on July 5, 2021