Researching Cultural Objects and Manuscripts in a Small Country: The Finnish Experience of Raising Awareness of Art Crime
1
Department of Cultures, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland
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Department of Biblical Studies, Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland
3
Department of Religion, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC 29303, USA
4
Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Arts 2018, 7(2), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts7020019
Received: 22 March 2018
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Revised: 4 May 2018
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Accepted: 22 May 2018
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Published: 29 May 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Art Crime Research (2018))
In this article we shed light on the position of Finland in conversations on the movement of unprovenanced cultural objects, within the national, the Nordic and the global contexts. Finland’s geopolitical position, as a “hard border” of the European Union neighbouring the Russian Federation, and its current legislative provisions, which do not include import regulations, mean that it has the potential to be significant in understanding the movement of cultural property at transnational levels. In particular, we outline a recent initiative started at the University of Helsinki to kick-start a national debate on ethical working with cultural objects and manuscripts. We analyse exploratory research on current awareness and opinion within Finland, and summarize our current work to produce robust research ethics to guide scholars working in Finland. Although Finland has a small population and is usually absent from international discussions on the illicit movement of cultural property (save a few exceptions), we argue that it is still possible—and important—for scholars and others in Finland to affect policy and attitudes concerning art crime, provenance, and the role of stakeholders such as decision-makers, traders and the academy.
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Keywords:
Finland; Nordic; cultural objects; manuscripts; research ethics; import regulations; export regulations; cultural heritage
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Thomas, S.; Bonnie, R.; Dixon, H.; Immonen, V. Researching Cultural Objects and Manuscripts in a Small Country: The Finnish Experience of Raising Awareness of Art Crime. Arts 2018, 7, 19. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts7020019
AMA Style
Thomas S, Bonnie R, Dixon H, Immonen V. Researching Cultural Objects and Manuscripts in a Small Country: The Finnish Experience of Raising Awareness of Art Crime. Arts. 2018; 7(2):19. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts7020019
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas, Suzie, Rick Bonnie, Helen Dixon, and Visa Immonen. 2018. "Researching Cultural Objects and Manuscripts in a Small Country: The Finnish Experience of Raising Awareness of Art Crime" Arts 7, no. 2: 19. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts7020019
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