On Saturday afternoon, May 15, 2010 from 2:00-3:30 pm, Dr. Haidy
Geismar will lead a new “SAFE Tour” of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art. SAFE tours provide an “insider’s look” at a museum collection
and focus on artworks and artifacts that have dubious provenance or are
presumed to be illicit.

An anthropologist, Dr. Geismar is an Assistant Professor in the Museum
Studies Program and the Department of Anthropology of New York University.
Her research interests are visual anthropology and material culture; cultural
and intellectual property; digital technologies in relation to understandings of
materiality, museum practices (collection, archiving, preservation and
exhibition) and photography; new economic forms; and the anthropology
of Oceania. She is editor of Material World.

Her tour will be based in the Pacific Hall of the Rockefeller Wing of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. She will talk about the museum’s history
of collection and display of Pacific artifacts and trace the background of
the Rockefeller Collection. She will also provide a background to the tribal
art market and discuss the way it works and the impact it has had on local
cultures. This history will be juxtaposed with the ways in which museums in
the Pacific now grapple with the legacy of ethnographic collection and the
wholesale loss of artifacts to museums in far away places. She will cover
recent controversies in cultural property claims and illegal trade in Pacific
artifacts and muse on possible strategies for museums to ethically negotiate
this terrain.

Reservations are required as space is limited. The cost is $30; $10 for
full-time students with valid ID. The ticket price includes admission to the
Museum. For reservations, go to http://savingantiquities.org/whatwedosafetoursGeismar.php

SAFE/Saving Antiquities for Everyone [http://www.savingantiquities.org] is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving cultural heritage worldwide.