“Museums have lots and lots of stuff,” I usually answer, fighting the urge to roll my eyes.
Now Manhattan’s Rubin Museum of Art, which features art from the Himalayas, has announced that it will close later this year.
But looted artifacts alone — removed from their original context, quarantined in an antiseptic display case — cannot do this.
Unlike, say, Impressionist paintings or Pop Art sculptures, ritual objects were not meant to be seen in a gallery at a time of the viewer’s choosing.
Used alongside music, scents and tastes, these holy relics are tools to help participants in rituals achieve a transcendent experience.
Persons:
It’s, Manhattan’s
Organizations:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Museum of, Museum of Art
Locations:
Cambodia