An Analysis of the Collection Histories of Fake Zapotec Urns at The National Museum of the American Indian
Open AccessThe collecting frenzy of the late 1800s and early 1900s marks a time of museum building and the growth of archaeology as a profession in the United States. During this time, anthropologists, archaeologists, museums, and collectors sought to acquire “primitive” art. As demand grew, fake artifacts were introduced into the collecting world. As scholars did not have in-depth knowledge of certain cultures, such as the Zapotecs, fake artifacts were often accepted as authentic. For museums, documented fake artifacts throw suspicion over other objects in the collection, and can damage a museum's reputation. Archaeological research can be damaged when fake artifacts are studied vis-à-vis authentic pieces. For the collector, a fake artifact results in a loss of prestige and exchange value. Today, scholars have noted numerous fake Zapotec urns in nearly every museum collection acquired before the 1930s. This thesis project researched the collection histories of thirty-three fake Zapotec urns in the National Museum of the American Indian as identified by Adam Sellen, in an effort to rediscover the objects' provenances and histories of acquisition. In this thesis I argue that conducting archival research and the use of various scholarly and Internet resources to rediscover the collection histories of museum artifacts is integral to the authentication process of museum collections. I argue that the lives of the collectors involved and the life histories of fake objects allow for the assessment of the authenticity of other objects in the same collection and illuminate the cultural contexts surrounding the production, exchange, and collection of fake Zapotec urns.
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