Abstract

Through a case study of the looting, sale, conservation and subsequent publication of ‘The Gospel of Judas’, this article examines if there is any ethical merit in conserving looted manuscripts. While fully acknowledging the extensive harm caused by looting, it explores the prevailing argument in archaeological circles that all looted artefacts must be ignored by conservators, given the logic that the blanket refusal to authenticate, conserve or research looted objects would decrease demand and their grey market value, and so prevent archaeological sites being robbed. However, this view, it is argued, is complicated by antiquities with written content and that conservation ethics leave room for conservators to use informed judgement on a case-by-case basis, especially as looted manuscripts have two types of context: archaeological and textual. By examining the experiences of a wide range of conservators and applying professional conservation ethics, the argument is made that there is still merit in conserving and publishing the textual content of otherwise unique, historic and badly deteriorated manuscript artefacts such as ‘The Gospel of Judas’. Conservators need to retain agency and uphold a duty of care to an object in order to help unlock and preserve landmark texts, so long as it is undertaken responsibly in the service of mitigating the harm done by looting as much as possible.

摘要

通过对“犹大福音”的掠夺、出售、保存和随后出版的案例研究，本文探讨了保存被掠夺的手稿是否有任何道德价值。在充分承认掠夺造成的广泛危害的同时，它探讨了考古界普遍存在的观点，即所有被掠夺的文物都必须被保护人员忽略，因为一揽子拒绝认证、保护或研究被掠夺的物品会减少需求及其灰色市场。价值，从而防止考古遗址被盗。然而，有人认为，这种观点因具有书面内容的古物而变得复杂，而且保护伦理为保护者在个案的基础上做出明智的判断留有余地，尤其是当被掠夺的手稿有两种类型的背景时：考古和文本. 通过检查广泛的保护者的经验并应用专业的保护伦理，有人认为保护和出版其他独特的、历史性的和严重退化的手稿的文本内容仍然是有价值的，例如“犹大福音” . 保护人员需要保留代理权并维护对物品的注意义务，以帮助解锁和保存具有里程碑意义的文本，只要它是负责任地进行，以尽可能减轻抢劫造成的伤害。