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Gallery Owner Defends Sale Of Ancient Ecuadorian Items

Gallery Owner Defends Sale Of Ancient Ecuadorian Items image
Parent Issue
Day
26
Month
December
Year
1974
Copyright
Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

Section Three

THE ANN ARBOR NEWS

Pages 23 to 34

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Thursday, December 26,1974

Gallery Owner Defends Sale Of Ancient Ecuadorian Items

BY NANCY DUNN

News Staff Reporter

Should cultural artifacts of a bygone era remain buried with the remains of the people and the civilization which produced them?

And further, are such pieces—once resurrected—fundamentally the property of a nation and a people who inhabit the same lands 2,500 years later? Should they be shared with the world via exhibits or sold to collectors at the going market rate?

Condemning “commercialized looting” of Latin American Pre-Columbian cultural pieces, the curatorial staff of the U-M’s Museum of Anthropology has pointed an accusing finger at Forsythe Galleries, a privately-owned commercial gallery in Nickels Arcade.

Daniel L. DeGraaf, owner of the galleries, contends the issue is not as simple as the “commercial ripoff” he sees implied in the curators’ charges.

At issue is a collection of pottery and small terra-cotta figures produced by the Tolita and Jama-coaque Indians who inhabited Ecuador, on the Pacific coast of South America, at least 2,500 years ago.

The gallery is offering the pieces for sale at prices ranging from $20 to $1,800. On display for sale since mid-November, the collection contains some pieces which DeGraaf himself says “belong in museums.”

A letter to The News, signed by the Museum of Anthropology’s curatorial staff, raised legal and moral questions about the sale and called for withdrawl of the exhibit and a boycott by potential purchasers.

DeGraaf said the people who signed the letter did not contact him to discuss the matter, nor did they introduce themselves to him (if they have been in the gallery) to discuss their objections.

The letter was signed by Richard I. Ford, James B. Griffin, Karl L. Hutterer, Jeffrey R. Parsons, Christopher S. Peebles, Robert E. Whallon Jr. and Henry T. Wright, identified as the Museum of Anthropology’s curatorial staff.

“I would appreciate discussing this with them from a moral point of view,” DeGraaf said when he learned of the charges. “I’m not as sure of my position as they seem to be about theirs.”

He admitted some visitors to the gallery have voiced objections to the exhibit, but DeGraaf dismissed that as something to be expected "from both sides of whenever something “controversial" is involved.

In their letter, the curatorial staff, referring to the Forsythe’s Pre-Columbian antiquities, said they “do not know how or where these materials were obtained.” Pointing to the sale of Pre-Columbian antiquities to collectors throughout the world, the staff lambasted “commercialized looting” as “illegal and immoral. . . (and) a loss for all mankind.”

The Forsythe sale, contended the curators, represents “commercialized plunder of Americans’ Pre-Columbian past.” They urged the gallery to remove the items from the salesroom, reconsider its position and never again sell “prehistoric antiquities.”

“I believe in the free marketplace,” DeGraaf said, “and I don’t think people in government or universities ought to issue edicts unless they have a direct line of communication to God.”

Added DeGraaf, “When we go after things, we don’t go after what will make money; we go after beauty.”

“Sure, we make money,” he conceded, "but we pay our taxes,” which, he added, make it possible for universities, museums and curatorial staffs to function as they do.

The curators charged that “the unauthorized removal of such objects from their country of origin is expressly prohibited by Ecuadorian law.”

They noted that although there are no U.S. laws “specifically prohibiting the importation of Ecuadorian Pre-Columbian objects,” such U.S. legal bans do exist for imports from several other South American nations.

DeGraaf countered that he obtained the collection by “working personally with the digger,” and he denied that the artifacts were obtained illegally.

There was “no middleman,” he insisted, and he said his importation is no "wholesale movement.”

The digger contacted him about the collection some months ago, after being steered to DeGraaf by a mutual art world acquaintance.

The digger, DeGraaf explained, is a young Greek man who is studying archaeology, and DeGraaf said he has a "greater commitment” than merely “exploiting” the relics of Ecuadorian Indian civilization.

“He assured me he was working under contract with the Ecuadorian government and had their permission,” DeGraaf said.

Under the regulations imposed by the Ecuadorian government, DeGraaf said, the young man did his digging under the constant supervision of Ecuadorian officials. All of his finds were taken to authorities in Quito, Ecuador, where pieces made of precious metals and encrusted with rare gems were retained by the government. Although treasures such as those were required to be turned over to the government, DeGraaf said, the digger was allowed to keep a portion of the other finds.

DeGraaf was frank about the value of the pieces many of them depicting gods or leaders outfitted in ritualistic regalia.

“This is one of the finest collections of its type to come into the country this year at least,” he said flatly.

“They were made during the regional development period from 500 BC to 500 AD. They are extremely sophisticated for the period, more so than some collections from Mexico and South American as late as 1200 AD.”

He speculated that many of the items he has sold from the collection since it was first displayed in mid-November will be donated to museums.

He said he attempted to interest the Detroit Institute of Arts in reviewing the collection before public sale began. He said they assured him they would do so but they did not.

The curatorial staff charged that excavations and importation have “contributed in a major way to the irretrievable loss of the material record of America’s indigenous past.”

But DeGraaf contends that collections such as his Pre-Columbian objects can enrich the knowledge of peoples of the world.

"There should be a great world sharing,” he said.

DeGraaf said he did consider the situation “from a moral point of view” when he made his commitment to take the collection. He said he would “re-evaluate” his position before he would make another commitment.

“If I can be convinced of the moral injustice here,” he continued, “I will realign my position in the future. My moral standards supersede my artistic standards.”

Stressing his belief that his gallery’s sale is not unique, DeGraaf noted that many Detroit galleries sell African art.

DeGraaf served for several years as director of fine arts of Muskegon Community College’s Frauenthal Art Center, a combination of community cultural center and academic facility, where he headed a teaching and art center staff of mere than a dozen people.

He and his wife have owned the Forsythe Galleries for two years now, and he said he’s committed to it:

“Art is a commodity,” he said, “but the soul needs it.”

With apartment and condominium living being so prevalent now, he said, art gives people their individuality."