The Art of Status
Looted Treasures and the Global Politics of Restitution
Published on 9. October 2025
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-19-890975-0 (ISBN)
Description
An illuminating exploration of the relationship between the restitution of looted art, global status, and the international construction of national cultural heritage.
Why is art restitution a matter of politics? How does the artwork displayed in national museums reflect the international status of the state that owns it? Why do some states agree to return looted art and others resist?
National art collections have long been a way for states to compete with each other for status, prestige, and cultural worth in international society. In many former imperial nations, however, these collections include art looted during imperial expansions and colonial occupations. While this was once a sign of high international standing, the markers of such status, particularly in the context of art, have since significantly changed. A new international legal and normative architecture governing art provenance developed after World War II and became institutionalized in the 1990s and 2000s. Since then, there have been national and global social movements demanding the return of looted art. This shift has established not only that looting is wrong but, more importantly, that restitution is morally right. As a result of this reframing of what it means to own art, an artifact's historical provenance has become a core element of its value and the search for provenance and demands for restitution a direct threat to state status. The same objects that granted states high international status now threaten to provoke status decline.
In The Art of Status, Jelena Subotic examines this relationship between the restitution of looted art and international status, with a focus on the Parthenon ('Elgin') Marbles, the Benin Bronzes, and a collection of paintings looted during the Holocaust that are now housed at the Serbian National Museum. Subotic tells the story of these artworks, how they were looted, how they ended up on display in national museums, and how the art restitution disputes have unfolded. While these cases are different in terms of their historical context of looting and ownership claims, the movements for their restitution, and resistance to it, illustrate the larger questions of how national cultural heritage is internationally constructed and how it serves states' desire for international status and prestige.
An in-depth and nuanced account of art restitution disputes, The Art of Status illuminates the shifting political significance of art on the international stage, from ownership to restitution.
Why is art restitution a matter of politics? How does the artwork displayed in national museums reflect the international status of the state that owns it? Why do some states agree to return looted art and others resist?
National art collections have long been a way for states to compete with each other for status, prestige, and cultural worth in international society. In many former imperial nations, however, these collections include art looted during imperial expansions and colonial occupations. While this was once a sign of high international standing, the markers of such status, particularly in the context of art, have since significantly changed. A new international legal and normative architecture governing art provenance developed after World War II and became institutionalized in the 1990s and 2000s. Since then, there have been national and global social movements demanding the return of looted art. This shift has established not only that looting is wrong but, more importantly, that restitution is morally right. As a result of this reframing of what it means to own art, an artifact's historical provenance has become a core element of its value and the search for provenance and demands for restitution a direct threat to state status. The same objects that granted states high international status now threaten to provoke status decline.
In The Art of Status, Jelena Subotic examines this relationship between the restitution of looted art and international status, with a focus on the Parthenon ('Elgin') Marbles, the Benin Bronzes, and a collection of paintings looted during the Holocaust that are now housed at the Serbian National Museum. Subotic tells the story of these artworks, how they were looted, how they ended up on display in national museums, and how the art restitution disputes have unfolded. While these cases are different in terms of their historical context of looting and ownership claims, the movements for their restitution, and resistance to it, illustrate the larger questions of how national cultural heritage is internationally constructed and how it serves states' desire for international status and prestige.
An in-depth and nuanced account of art restitution disputes, The Art of Status illuminates the shifting political significance of art on the international stage, from ownership to restitution.
Reviews / Votes
The Art of Status provides an amazing account of why and how art matters in international politics. Moving effortlessly across centuries and continents, Jelena Subotic shows how antique hunting and archeological plundering, theft and colonial possessiveness, and the looting of art by Nazi Germany connect to national identity and states seeking status. Impossible to put down, The Art of Status makes you look at art and debates over its restitution in a new and much brighter light. * Lene Hansen, Professor, University of Copenhagen * The Art of Status is a landmark book. Starting from a localised interest in art looted by the Nazis, Jelena Subotic stretches a much bigger canvas and paints a picture of the international politics of looting and restitution since the end of the 18th century. Beautifully written and masterfully researched, this book breaks ground by highlighting the status dimension of looting and restitution and demonstrating unquestionably how important this topic is to international relations past and present. * Halvard Leira, Research Director and Research Professor, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs * In The Art of Status, Subotic fascinates with her telling of the bloody history of looted artworks, from the Elgin Marbles, to the Benin Bronzes, to the countless galleries and private collections emptied by the Nazis. From the initial victims and villains, she traces the rising controversy over the return of stolen works, raising acutely current dilemmas about the politics of art. * Jason Sharman, Sir Patrick Sheehy Professor of International Relations, University of Cambridge * The question of why Nigeria seeks the return of the Benin Bronzes, or why any country fights for repatriation of its cultural property, has often been asked. But why is it that museums in Germany and the United States have surrendered so many Bronzes, while the British Museum holds its hundreds immobile? Subotic brilliantly flips the lens to ask why nations position themselves either as hoarders or restorers of stolen art. The Art of Status presents an utterly convincing analysis of the patterns and causes of nationalistic retention or return. Subotic's work will change both our understanding of repatriation's history and our activism for its future. * Erin Thompson, Professor of Art Crime, City University of New York *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Illustrations
12 figures
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
560 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-890975-0 (9780198909750)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jelena Subotic is Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University in Atlanta. She is the author of Hijacked Justice: Dealing with the Past in the Balkans (2009) and Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance after Communism (2019), which won multiple awards. She is also the co-editor of Politics, Violence, Memory: The New Social Science of the Holocaust (2023), as well as the author of more than 40 scholarly articles in major international journals. She has also served as the editor-in-chief of the journal Global Studies Quarterly.
Content
Preface
1: Introduction: The International Problem of Looted Art
2: Museums, Restitution, and International Status
3: The Marbles
4: The Bronzes
5: The Pictures
6: Conclusion: International Politics in the Age of Restitution
Index
1: Introduction: The International Problem of Looted Art
2: Museums, Restitution, and International Status
3: The Marbles
4: The Bronzes
5: The Pictures
6: Conclusion: International Politics in the Age of Restitution
Index