The Cypriot Vase Collection at ODU
Description/Abstract/Artist Statement
ODU’s Special Collections Department has a collection of five ancient vases from Cyprus, which were given to the university in the 1960s. Traditionally, such collections of antiquities are considered legally acquired and owned if they have provenance before 1973, when the United States ratified its participation in the UNESCO Act of 1970. Although the vases were gifted to the campus through legal terms, keeping them in the university’s Special Collections conflicts with ODUs Monarch values. This predicament is due to the timing of the transaction between Dudley Cooper, the original collector who legally bought the vases and gifted them to ODU, and Cyprus. The island of Cyprus steeped in a violent civil war in the 1960s, when the vases were acquired. Due to the vases being purchased during a state of vulnerability, keeping the vases on the argument of legality fails to maintain the standards and values that ODU claims to uphold. By explaining the civil wars of Cyprus and the consequential looting of these wars, this paper aims to bring to light the truth of how these vases were acquired and how they ended up at Old Dominion University. The author aims to persuade ODU to rethink its ownership of these vases in conversation with Cyprus, whose cultural heritage they belong to.
Faculty Advisor/Mentor
Jared Benton
College Affiliation
College of Arts & Letters
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Disciplines
Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology
Session Title
Art History 1: Art at Work
Location
Zoom Room G
Start Date
3-20-2021 10:00 AM
End Date
3-20-2021 10:55 AM
The Cypriot Vase Collection at ODU
Zoom Room G
ODU’s Special Collections Department has a collection of five ancient vases from Cyprus, which were given to the university in the 1960s. Traditionally, such collections of antiquities are considered legally acquired and owned if they have provenance before 1973, when the United States ratified its participation in the UNESCO Act of 1970. Although the vases were gifted to the campus through legal terms, keeping them in the university’s Special Collections conflicts with ODUs Monarch values. This predicament is due to the timing of the transaction between Dudley Cooper, the original collector who legally bought the vases and gifted them to ODU, and Cyprus. The island of Cyprus steeped in a violent civil war in the 1960s, when the vases were acquired. Due to the vases being purchased during a state of vulnerability, keeping the vases on the argument of legality fails to maintain the standards and values that ODU claims to uphold. By explaining the civil wars of Cyprus and the consequential looting of these wars, this paper aims to bring to light the truth of how these vases were acquired and how they ended up at Old Dominion University. The author aims to persuade ODU to rethink its ownership of these vases in conversation with Cyprus, whose cultural heritage they belong to.