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Much Nazi and Soviet stolen art and antiquities programmatically acquired in WWII has still not been fully restituted by a long shot. Many global museums have collections with hundreds of masterpieces with no provenance history between 1939-50 and some countries strongly resist lawful repatriation to the former owners’ heirs. Since the Pol Pot debacle in Cambodia with Southeast Asia Khmer theft showing up in major auction houses and related smuggling and counterfeiting, the same amoral players who traffic arms, drugs and humans—with stolen art used for hiding money laundering – are deeply involved in these ongoing scenarios, ignoring or burying the long trail of blood and death that too often leads to a sanitized posh gallery or luxury storefront with complicit dealers or intermediaries. As a career forensic archaeologist, Dr. Patrick Hunt has consulted for US Customs and European and other international agencies on smuggled and counterfeited antiquities and art, and his doctoral work involved forensic examination of some international examples in this problematic history of illegal acquisition, as much as possible of which will be shown in this amply illustrated lecture.
Patrick Hunt believes the perceived boundaries between academic subjects are too often arbitrary and artificial, and thus explores junctions between many intersecting areas of interest across the broader humanities, sciences, and the arts. Patrick has followed several of his life-long dreams—archaeologist, writer, composer, poet, and art historian—for nearly three decades at Stanford University. Among many other works, he is author of When Empires Clash, Pascal & Voltaire at the Cafe Procope, Hannibal, and Ten Discoveries that Rewrote History.
