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.

Presenting Author Name/s

Kayla Cochran

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

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Mar 20th, 10:00 AM Mar 20th, 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.