The Sir Charles Nicholson Annual Lecture 2026

About

The last few decades have seen renewed efforts by source countries to reclaim ancient objects illicitly excavated and exported from their territory, matched by a growing commitment among institutions across the globe to investigate the provenance and authenticity of their collections. Yet despite this interest, discussions of the antiquities trade – licit or illicit – remain object-centred. This talk shifts the focus to people: the diggers, dealers, and recipients who unearthed, moved, and acquired ancient objects in Greece during the second half of the nineteenth century. Who were they? How did they organise their trade, and what motivated them?

By returning to the protagonists of this story and situating them within the antiquities legislation then in force in Greece, this talk offers a glimpse into a little-known world: a social history of the antiquities trade in which people and their actions take centre stage, and ancient objects become active agents within competing social and political agendas. A valuable source of insight into these questions is the personal office diary of Panagiotis Eustratiadis, chief superintendent of antiquities of Greece at the time (1864–1884). Using this as a reference point, and drawing from a wider range of archival sources, this lecture reconstructs the complex web that made up not only the antiquities trade but also the modern practice of classical archaeology in the country. By bringing to light the tensions, contradictions, and personal…