Collecting the Ancient Andes: Antiquities, Artefacts, and Their Histories at the British Museum
Lead Research Organisation:
University of East Anglia
Department Name: Art, Media and American Studies
Abstract
The project explores the history of Andean collections at the British Museum, focusing on pre-Columbian artefacts acquired roughly between the mid-19th and mid-20th century. It aims to establish the provenance of objects in the collection, and through dedicated archival research, to trace the networks of individuals involved in their acquisition, trade, and movement.
Employing an object biography approach, the research seeks to elucidate the life of selected objects in the collection from their deposition and original context in the Andes to their eventual placement in the British Museum, in tandem with an exploration of the lives of traders, dealers, collectors and other professionals who facilitated and were otherwise involved with the conveyance of objects.
Such networks of objects and persons, together with the practice of collecting, will be framed within a historical framework exploring the social, political, and economic climate of the 19th and 20th centuries. The themes which will be investigated include: the potentially conscious decisions taken to acquire certain categories of objects over others, the way in which relationships between individuals shaped the objects' journeys, the economic and political factors contributing to the objects leaving the Andes, and the resulting understandings and portrayals of the contemporary Andean region and its pre-colonial past through displays, exhibitions, and the sale of antiquities in Britain, and more widely, in Europe or North America.
Specifically, and as far as possible, the research will seek to foreground the connections between collectors, dealers, and laypersons in the Andes, as well as the decisions made to obtain objects from their original depositional contexts prior to the sale/movement of objects to Britain, exploring the political and economic milieu which contributed to this, the international nature of networks, and the social attitudes towards collecting in source countries.
The methodology employed will be largely archival in nature, beginning with an analysis of the archival acquisition and curatorial records held by the British Museum and subsequently the study of other repositories where material may be held. A theoretical aspect of the work will critically examine the archival research as a research practice and the archive as a space in which a particular history is created. Archival study will be complemented by physical engagement with objects in the collection where warranted to supplement provenance information, taking the form of a visual inspection for any clues regarding an object's biography.
Employing an object biography approach, the research seeks to elucidate the life of selected objects in the collection from their deposition and original context in the Andes to their eventual placement in the British Museum, in tandem with an exploration of the lives of traders, dealers, collectors and other professionals who facilitated and were otherwise involved with the conveyance of objects.
Such networks of objects and persons, together with the practice of collecting, will be framed within a historical framework exploring the social, political, and economic climate of the 19th and 20th centuries. The themes which will be investigated include: the potentially conscious decisions taken to acquire certain categories of objects over others, the way in which relationships between individuals shaped the objects' journeys, the economic and political factors contributing to the objects leaving the Andes, and the resulting understandings and portrayals of the contemporary Andean region and its pre-colonial past through displays, exhibitions, and the sale of antiquities in Britain, and more widely, in Europe or North America.
Specifically, and as far as possible, the research will seek to foreground the connections between collectors, dealers, and laypersons in the Andes, as well as the decisions made to obtain objects from their original depositional contexts prior to the sale/movement of objects to Britain, exploring the political and economic milieu which contributed to this, the international nature of networks, and the social attitudes towards collecting in source countries.
The methodology employed will be largely archival in nature, beginning with an analysis of the archival acquisition and curatorial records held by the British Museum and subsequently the study of other repositories where material may be held. A theoretical aspect of the work will critically examine the archival research as a research practice and the archive as a space in which a particular history is created. Archival study will be complemented by physical engagement with objects in the collection where warranted to supplement provenance information, taking the form of a visual inspection for any clues regarding an object's biography.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Anna Maria Szulfer (Student) |
 http://orcid.org/0009-0000-9758-5399
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