Bringing together scholars of the image, art and violence with experts on counter-terrorism and conflict antiquities, the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA) present a day-long symposium on the subject of Art and Terrorism. The collaborative event aims to provide a forum for engaging issues of urgent and wider public concern. Two strands of inquiry inform our discussion. One concerns histories and theories of war and images, including terrorist use of visual images and media, such as YouTube videos and the documented destruction of cultural monuments. The other takes a criminological approach, examining the use and abuse of art and antiquities by terrorist groups, including ISIS, al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the IRA. The event inaugurates a new initiative, Courtauld Debates, that brings the significance of art history to a wider audience through public facing dialogue. It also highlights a new collection of essays, Art Crime: Terrorists, Tomb Raiders, Forgers and Thieves (Palgrave), which features numerous expert speakers on this important and timely subject.
Programme
09.30 – 10.00 Registration
10.00 – 10.15 Welcome – Alixe Bovey (The Courtauld Institute of Art)
Session I
Chair: Julian Stallabrass (The Courtauld institute of Art)
10.15 – 10.30 Noah Charney (Founder, ARCA): Saving Antiquities from Terrorists.
10.30 – 11.00 Jennifer Good (Senior Lecturer in History and Theory of Documentary Photography, London College of Communication): The blinding cross: Totalising narratives of 9/11.
11.00 – 11.30 Anna Marazuela Kim (Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow, The Courtauld Institute of Art): The New Image Wars.
11:30 – 12.00 Francesco Rutelli (Former Italian Minister of Culture and Mayor of Rome, Chairman Associazione Incontro di Civiltà, President Cultural Heritage Rescue Prize): The Return of Iconoclasm: Ideology and Destruction by ISIS as a Challenge for Modern Culture
12.00 – 13.00 Lunch (provided for the speakers/chairs only)
Session II
Chair: Noah Charney (ARCA)
13.00 – 13.30 Mike Giglio (Investigative Journalist and War Correspondent):
Antiquities Looting and Terrorism: a View from the Field.
13.30 – 14.00 Michael Will (Manager, Europol’s Organized Crime Networks Group): Europol and European Involvement in the Fight Against Cultural Goods Trafficking.
14.00 – 14.30 Sam Hardy (Honorary Research Associate, UCL Institute of Archaeology): ‘Blood clings to these things’: Uncovering the trade in conflict antiquities.
14.30 – 14.45 Film screening: “The Quake” الزلزلة Directed by Matteo Barzini
Musical score by Ennio Morricone, Produced by Feel Film Production
14.45 – 15.30 Discussion
15.30 – 16.00 Tea/coffee break (Proceed to seminar rooms 1 & 2)
Session III
Chair: Anna Marazuela Kim (The Courtauld Institute of Art)
16.00 – 16.30 Julian Stallabrass (Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art): Representing the Iraqi Resistance.
16.30 – 17.00 Edmund Clark (Award-winning photographer) Negative Publicity: Artefacts of Extraordinary Rendition
17.00 – 17.30 Neville Bolt (Senior Teaching Fellow, Department of War Studies, King’s College, London): Iconic Photographs & Geopolitics.
17.30 – 17.45 Giovanni Boccardi (Chief of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Unit of UNESCO’s Culture Sector): UNESCO’s Global Action to Protect Cultural heritage Under Threat.
17.45 – 18.30 Plenary Discussion
18.30 Reception