Stolen, Smuggled, Sold: On the Hunt for Cultural Treasures

by Nancy Moses

Stolen, Smuggled Sold: On the Hunt for Cultural Treasures tells the dark and compelling stories of iconic cultural objects that were stolen, smuggled or sold, and eventually returned back to their original owner.

There are many books about museum heists, Holocaust artwork, insider theft, trafficking in antiquities, and stolen Native American objects. Now, there’s finally a book for the general public that covers the entire terrain. The book includes full-color photos of the objects.

Stolen, Smuggled, Sold features seven vivid and true stories in which the reader joins the author as she uncovers a cultural treasure and follows its often-convoluted trail. Along the way author and reader encounter a cast of fascinating characters from the underbelly of the cultural world: unscrupulous grave robbers, sinister middlemen, ruthless art dealers, venal Nazis, canny lawyers, valiant academics, unstoppable investigative reporters, unwitting curators, and dedicated government officials. Stories include Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer 1, the typset manuscript for Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth, a ceremonial Ghost Dance short from the massacre at Wounded Knee, the theft of 4,800 historical audio discs by a top official at the National Archives, a missing original copy of The Bill of Rights, the mummy of Ramses I, and an ancient treasure from Iraq.

While each story is fascinating in and of itself, together they address one of the hottest issues in the museum world: how to deal with the millions of items that have breaks in the chain of ownership, suspicious ownership records, or no provenance at all. The issue of ownership touches on professional practices, international protocols, and national laws. It’s a financial issue since the illicit trade in antiquities and cultural items generates as much as $4 billion to $8 billion a year.

Nancy Moses is a consultant for museums, other cultural organizations, and communities. She was executive director of the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia and served on the executive staff of WQED and the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Philadelphia Studies. She managed a grant program at the National Endowment for the Humanities. She consults to an impressive array of nonprofits of different sizes, structures and missions. Most recently, Nancy spearheaded a new women's social venture fund and helped the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania launch the Wharton Social Impact Corps for its MBA students.

Nancy Moses is the author of Lost in the Museum: Hidden Treasures and the Stories They Tell (AltaMira Press 2008) which won a 2008 Gold Medal from ForeWard Magazine. Her opinion pieces and articles have appeared in The Wall Journal, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Public Management Magazine, and other publications. Nancy holds a Masters Degree in American Civilization from George Washington University.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, History, Museums, True Crime, Art History

267 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 4, 2015

Reviews

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short book by an experienced non-profit consultant provides good summaries of recent incidents involving the wayward handling of cultural properties, including the manuscript of Pearl Buck’s Good Earth, a horde of obscure recordings stolen by a curator, a Lakota Ghost Dance shirt repatriated from Scotland, a sideshow mummy elevated to royalty, the financing of terrorism with dawn-of-civilization Iraqi artifacts, and Gustav Klimt’s famous “Woman in Gold” painting, ever so slowly liberated after its confiscation by the Nazis. Those already familiar with these stories may enjoy the summaries, and the book might be profitably assigned to students as an introduction to the ethics of museum curating.

Nevertheless, while the writing is good, it is not exceptional, and many of the chapters are padded out with extraneous material. (The chapter supposedly about the Good Earth manuscript is really a short biography of Pearl Buck—and not a bad one at that.) I was also annoyed by the first-person narrative style (think National Geographic): “’Why was it so important to get this particular document back?’ I asked Honsinger. She thought for a moment, frowning.” (89) I eventually found it mollifying to skip every paragraph that contained the first-person singular.

[Castles · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very nice read, but do be informed that it doesn’t deal only with art pieces but also with stolen audio topes, an Indian cultural relic, and more. The book raises an important and interesting question about rights and possession of artifacts with historical value. Who should own them, are they public? What if they were stolen in war but now presented in a museum? Do the ancestors of the original owner have a right to own the pirate back (of course they do), etc...

I’ve found most chapters interesting other than the one about a signed constitutional document of some American state. Seriously, not being American and this artifact one of many, why is that even interesting. All in all, it’s a good read.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well-researched but unevenly told. Each object provides a basic background in acquisition, provenance, and ethics, and can act as a springboard for a wider story.

However, a nit-picky detail: missing-word errors pop up so frequently that it's like dodging shrapnel. One or two you can skip over, but one or two errors in each chapter brought down the whole book.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stolen, Smuggled, Sold: On the Hunt for Cultural Treasures features true stories in which the author, Nancy Moses, traces the theft of seven irreplaceable cultural treasures, their recovery and eventual repatriation back to their original owners and/or in one particularly heartbreaking incident (the Ghost Dance Shirt), its point of origin and its people.

The stories include:

1. Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer 1
2. The typeset manuscript for Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth
3. The aforementioned ceremonial Ghost Dance shirt from the massacre at Wounded Knee
4. The theft of 4,800 historical audio discs by a top official at the National Archives
5. A missing original copy of The Bill of Rights
6. The mummy of Ramses I, and an ancient treasure from Iraq

The book brings to light the important topic of the removal and return of cultural treasures. There are beautiful, glossy color photos included of each of the items discussed.

As Ms. Moses states in the preface: “I hope that the next time you go to a museum and see something that sparks your interest you ask yourself: How did this get here? Who does it belong to? And is that the way it ought to be?”

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting read. In a way it almost reads like a travelogue if the route you're traveling is Nancy Moses' research. In the introduction she sets up the How and Why of this book: research for a potential story for her previous book Lost in the Museum (absolutely amazing btw) was being stonewalled and it piqued her curiosity. From there she was able to devote more time and delve even further into the subject of repatriating cultural objects. Every chapter is like that. Moses discovers some new fascinating factoid, and begins researching it and learning more about it, and takes the reader along for the journey to flesh out the story. Each chapter feels like an introductory course into its subject matter. The Jewish struggle for art restitution. The Native American struggle for cultural repatriation. The Middle Eastern struggle against looting. And some other struggles that are not rooted in imperialism and/or racism. Moses does a great job laying out the stories, depicting each side, and establishing why these stories are important and why we should care. This was a solid book on a topic often pushed to the side if ever brought to the front.

[Jeanette · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not as I expected it to be. The details of research and descriptions of the art/treasures were good, more than adequate. But somehow the whole just didn't hang together and continuity was missing. Different tangents intersecting against the flow, IMHO.

This was hardcover and the photo plates were excellent, that's why I picked it up. But I was almost warned in the long Introduction that this would wander. If you have intense interest in paintings, museum pieces' history and what was stolen from Jews in Europe during the Nazi domination of WWII (but don't think this book will be a clear cut tale just about this subject) or where most of it is now? Then you may like this and get more out of the read, I would think.

There were other books on this subject and on forgery that I have read that did a much deeper and better job on the subject as a whole. On the stolen or smuggled too.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This was a fascinating read for the most part. However, it was much different than I anticipated. I expected the book to be more general, detailing the black market with regard to fine art. The author focused on several specific pieces / artifacts, & their journeys from being stolen, smuggled, sold, & then ultimately returned to their rightful owners.

It wasn’t a bad book. It just did not feel cohesive for me. I struggled to finish it. I would often get confused as the author would speak about one thing, then shift into a differing train of thought.

If you’re a nerd for history, archaeology, and art, this will be a super read for you. If you’re more about the inner workings of underground crime and criminology in general, this doesn’t hit on those aspects in much detail but it is worth the read for a general idea on how it all works.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fairly good book, but not the strongest I've ever read. Some of the items were more interesting than others and I could tell that the author felt that was as well. The book, even though it's recent, also felt a bit dated because of current events. I certainly felt much less sympathetic to the North Carolina archivist once the book told me they'd put up civil war battle flags. Current events leave me much less sympathetic to those who spend time glorifying white supremacist history.

Reading this as an ebook was also harder because I couldn't easily flip to the plates of the stolen items to look at them while reading the chapter. Still, it was an interesting read.

[Carianne Carleo-Evangelist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reads like fiction. An overview of some major cases of the last few decades including the return of North Carolina’s Bill of Rights, a ghost dance shirt, the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a Royal mummy and more. A good condensed look at what made these cases compelling and how they reached their conclusions.
My only quibble: this book needs a finer edit. The author had the director of the Glasgow museum as both Lucian and Julian and regularly mixed up reparations and repatriation. Overall, solid read

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. An eclectic collection of stories about lost or stolen (usually stolen) artwork and other cultural artifacts. Lots of interesting history and colorful figures, along with some thought provoking questions to mull over regarding the ethics of museums, private collections, and cultural ownership. The author did have a tendency in some stories to jump between very in-depth, detailed moments and brief, sometimes vague summaries of the item's history, which was a little jarring in spots, but that could have been due to a lack of available information.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am glad I read this book. I knew a bit of the story about the Klimt painting and had watched the movie based on that story. But this goes into other artifacts that were stolen--a Bill of Rights in NC during the post-Civil War era, a mummy from Egypt that was in a Niagara Falls museum of all places, a Lakota shirt worn by a warrior. Moses goes into the idea that museums preserve artifacts but does that justify their purchase of stolen or smuggled goods?

Read on my Kindle app while on vacation in Florida.

[Scarlet Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intimate glimpses into specific artifacts and sensitive explorations of the people involved in their journeys, case studies of the issues surrounding stolen, trafficked, looted, and other items of otherwise shady or incomplete provenance across the world.

Learned a lot. Nerded out a lot. Want to read it through again and take notes.

[Spinster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting bits here, and I liked that each chapter read like a discrete magazine article. It made the book manageable. The chapter on the NC Bill of Rights was fairly ridiculous as far as huge generalizations go. The chapter on the Sumerian vessel truly did not require a 9/11 recap.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about seven cultural artifacts and their journey Ms back to their rightful owners. While a few of the chapters seemed shorter than necessary - - as if they were articles that needed to be fleshed - - in all, the book is informative and demonstrates the complexity of the topic.

[Macrae]

With this book, Nancy Moses explores the question: who should own the world’s cultural treasures? She dives into the stories of seven different objects and the journeys they took before returning to their places of origin. An interesting read.

[Mell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stuff. I like the author's conversational approach to recounting history. 3.5 stars.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative. I'm not sure how I feel about the author's choice to insert herself into the narrative and write in first person. At times it worked, and at times it jolted me out of the story.

[Rachel Madden · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting but all chapters were not created equally.

[Marathon County Public Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moses is a woman intimately familiar with museums and the world of art. In this book she explores the rather shadowy world of art, ownership by individuals and museums, and acquisitions of spectacularly famous and valuable items under sometimes questionable methods. The book is divided into eight separate chapters covering the discovery, ownership, disappearance, and efforts to return oft times historic, cultural and artistic icons to their rightful owners. Each chapter reads like a mystery involving facts, emotion, and real people (both honest and otherwise), ethics, detective work and questions about what is right and proper in the ultimate disposition of these often priceless artifacts. From Klimt’s famous painting, (featured in the recent motion picture "Woman in Gold") which was one of thousands stolen by Hitler, to a ceremonial Lakota Ghost Dance tunic, to the (possible) mummy of Egyptian pharaoh Ramses I, and even a stolen recording of Babe Ruth’s voice from the National Archives, the reader is taken on fascinating journeys of who, what, when, and how these objects traveled through various “owners,” some legitimate and others not. If you like “who dun its” this is an engrossing read.

Marsha Y. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

[Mary Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

After seeing Woman in Gold starring Helen Mirren earlier this year, I could not wait to get my hands on Nancy Moses' latest creation that rips the veil off of the political, cultural and institutional dealings that have tramped on personal and national property rights for centuries. The author's second book follows Lost in the Museum: Buried Treasures and the Stories They tell, a fascinating tour of nine museums and their hidden treasures not seen by the public. Stolen, Smuggled and Sold focuses on 7 distinct objects and their histories enabling the reader to become intimately connected to the items and question their path of arrival in museums stirring curiosity of what transpires behind the scenes and evoking questions of fairness. As Supreme Court Justice Stewart famously stated in his threshold test for obscenity "I know it when I see it", the reader cannot help but feel these acquisitions are inherently wrong and should be righted. The writer engages not only museum curators, ethics professors and art buffs but as the story unravels as a suspenseful thriller, fans of historical fiction, legal dramas and mysteries will be just as hooked. And if you are fortunate enough to catch the author in person giving a reading, you may be there all evening debating with the guests about the subject matter.

[Bexa · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an archivist/librarian I really enjoyed this book. the ethical dilemma of stolen or missing artifacts is not something I've had to deal with really, but it was a lot of fun and new information about cultural history and the extent people have gone to get it back.

[Anne D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a terrific book. Each chapter is an engaging detective story about a museum object....a painting, a mummy, a warrior's shirt (and more)...tracking its path to the museum and back to its owner. Along the way the author gives us a wonderful historical overview of the circumstances that surrounded the creation of the object and its historical path. I loved the history in this book and the rich understanding to be gained of the inner workings of museums, and the economics of stolen antiquities. The book is extremely readable and richly detailed.

[Corgi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Stolen, Smuggled, Sold by Nancy Moses. Each chapter was about a cultural treasures that had been stolen, smuggled or sold. The book read like a detective story. N Moses wrote about the item and people involved, gave the history and then proceeded to solve the situation. It is a very interesting book, especially if you like non-fiction, learning about different things and mysteries.

I would recommend Stolen, Smuggled, Sold by N Moses.

[Anjaana Chadha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insightful. I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weaker than other books I have read on the subject.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating account of stolen cultural property and their safe return to original owners or countries.
Makes you think twice about provenance when visiting a museum

[Chris Noel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories of art/cultural artifacts that made their way back to their original owner/culture.