In Italian newspapers, the repatriation of the krater received minimal attention. Despite that, the notion of an object found on national territory automatically belonging to the state underlies Italy’s point of view, the krater does not seem to have a prominent place in the Italian national identity. In stark contrast to the positive way James Cuno thinks about encyclopedic museums, they have often proven to be rooms of plunder and pillage, whereas they once stood for cultural appreciation.
“Encyclopedic museums promote the understanding of culture as always fluid, ever changing, ever influenced by new and strange things-evidence of the overlapping diversity of humankind.” The nationalism/internationalism dichotomy has an impact on the discussion about which museums should curate and display cultural property and have the power to define the restitution narratives addressed in the curation. He states that there is a distinction between encyclopedic and national museums, with national museums being “…important instruments in the formation of nationalist narratives they are used to tell the story of a nation’s culture and past and confirm its present importance”, and encyclopedic museums displaying their collections as representations of the artistic heritage of the world. Paul Getty Trust, in his book Who Owns Antiquity? argues that antiquities should not be returned to their countries of origin. James Cuno, an American art historian and the President and CEO of the J.
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