MCLC: Ai Weiwei vase broken in local protest (5)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Magnus Fiskesjö <nf42 at cornell.edu>
Subject: Ai Weiwei vase broken in local protest (5)
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I have suggested in the past (in writings and lectures) that Ai Weiwei's
smashing of that pot, as well as his oversized summer palace zodiac
sculptures and maybe other artworks, may arise from an intention to mock
the current vogue of fetishizing antiquities, and he may have a point
there. Curious about others' views on that --

But that mockery can take other forms than smashing ancient things, and
I do agree with Hongjian Wang that it is a horrible thing to smash an
ancient urn like that, -- whether or not it has a dollar price tag, or a
formal owner -- whether????? according to some law, or more importantly
morally, in terms of how the urn represents the heritage of humankind as
a whole which brings a moral obligation to protect such things, whether
or not a formal law protects or condemns it or grants ownership to
someone. -- In the US, private landowners have the "right" to smash
everything on their land, such as Indian artefacts from the past, also a
crime against humanity, as well as against the Indians whose ancestor
made the pot -- those laws privileging private ownership over everything
is mad, mad, and reprehensible. I like John Carman's idea of disallowing
private or otherwise ownership of ancient objects and places, they
should be a commons, instead (see Carman, _Against Cultural Property_).

Magnus Fiskesjö