College of Law Lecture Examines Legal and Ethical Approaches to Stopping Archaeological Site Looting

The University of Cincinnati College of Law will host Patricia Gerstenblith of DePaul University's College of Law for the May 9 lecture "Preserving the Past for the Future: Legal and Ethical Responses to the Looting of Archaeological Sites."

About the Lecture

When archaeological sites are looted to provide antiquities for sale on the international art market, artifacts, their contexts and our history are lost. This lecture will examine the legal and ethical approaches that aim to discourage the trade in undocumented antiquities, recent changes in museum acquisitions policies, and alternative methods of achieving international exchange of cultural materials.

About the Speaker

Patty Gerstenblith is distinguished research professor of law at DePaul University and director of its Center for

 Art, Museum and Cultural Heritage Law. She is founding president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation (2005-2011), a director of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield and co-chair of the American Bar Association's Art and Cultural Heritage Law Committee. In 2011, she was appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama to serve as the chair of the President’s Cultural Property Advisory Committee in the U.S. Department of State, on which she had previously served as a public representative in the Clinton administration.

From 1995 to 2002, she was editor-in-chief of the "International Journal of Cultural Property." Her publications include the casebook, "Art, Cultural Heritage and the Law" (now in its second edition), and her articles “Controlling the International Market in Antiquities: Reducing the Harm, Preserving the Past”, published in the Chicago Journal of International Law, “Schultz and Barak at: Universal Recognition of National Ownership of Antiquities,” published in Art Antiquity and Law, and “Protecting Cultural Heritage in Armed Conflict: Looking Back, Looking Forward,” published in the Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal.

Gerstenblith received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College, Ph.D. in Art History and Anthropology from Harvard University, and J.D. from Northwestern University. Before joining the DePaul faculty, Gerstenblith clerked for the Honorable Richard D. Cudahy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.