Letters to Miranda and Canova on the Abduction of Antiquities from Rome and Athens

Book excerpt: Quatremére de Quincy, the most famous art critic at the end of the Enlightenment, published two sets of letters about the role of museums. He first implored them to return works of art to their original settings but later argued in favor of the museum as a place where artworks can be safely stored and made available for artists to study. Immensely contraversial and influential since they were written two centuries ago, Quatremére's texts sum up the most bewildering moment of the debate on museums: did the new institution inauguate the death of art, or bring it to its perfection? This volume offers the first English translation of the letters, as well as an extensive introduction that reveals their content, the reason for their intellectual success, and how they enlarge contemporary disputes about cultural property, national claims and universal beauty.