Erin L. Thompson is an American art historian and lawyer. She is a professor in the Department of Art and Music at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice (City University of New York).[1] She studies art crime, including antiquities looting, the deliberate destruction of art, and art produced by detainees at the Guantánamo Bay military detention camp.[2]

Erin L. Thompson
Erin L. Thompson in London, 2019
Academic background
Education
Academic work
DisciplineArt history
Sub-disciplineArt theft, art crime
Institutions

Career

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Thompson graduated from Barnard College in 2002.[3] She holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University.[1] She has written about art theft, repatriation cases, and ISIS destruction of ancient art and archeological sites like Palmyra, Syria. She has given a TEDx talk on "Terrorists and Archeologists: How the Past Belongs to the Present".[4] Thompson also testified as an expert witness in the 5Pointz graffiti art case.[5]

In 2015, Thompson co-curated the exhibit "The Missing: Rebuilding the Past" at the Andrew and Anya Shiva Gallery, John Jay College, which included works by artists and scholars, such as Morehshin Allahyari, who protest ISIS and other forms of destruction of the past through creative protests and reconstructions.[6]

Ode to the Sea exhibit

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Thompson with artwork made at Guantanamo at John Jay College in 2018

In 2017, Thompson co-curated the exhibit "Ode to the Sea: Art from Guantánamo" at the President’s Gallery, John Jay College, New York. The exhibit included works created at Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp by eight detainees.[7] Due to the response to the exhibit, the Pentagon prohibited any further artwork from leaving Guantánamo.[8] Thompson appeared on The Opposition with Jordan Klepper to defend the exhibit.[9]

Controversy

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In June 2020, during the protests following the murder of George Floyd, Thompson publicly commented on a video showing protesters preparing to tear down a Minneapolis statue of Christopher Columbus, saying that, "I'm a professor who studies the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage and I just have to say... use chain instead of rope and it'll go faster."[10] Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson accused Thompson of encouraging the destruction of public art, acts which she previously described as "damag[ing]... to humanity's shared heritage."[11]

Bibliography

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Erin Thompson". John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  2. ^ "Erin Thompson". KCRW. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  3. ^ "5 Questions With … the Nation's Only Full-Time Art Crime Professor". Barnard College. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  4. ^ TEDx Talks (2016-02-02), Terrorists and Archeologists: How the Past Belongs to the Present | Erin Thompson | TEDxCUNY, retrieved 2018-04-16
  5. ^ Marks, Timothy (2016). "The Saga Of 5Pointz: VARA's Deficiency In Protecting Notable Collections Of Street Art". Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review. 35 (3): 281–318.
  6. ^ "In Acts of Resistance, Artists and Scholars Digitally Reconstruct the Past". Hyperallergic. 2016-01-27. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  7. ^ York, Valerie Hopkins in New (2017-10-02). "'I can get my soul out of prison': the art made by Guantánamo detainees". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  8. ^ Fortin, Jacey (2017-11-27). "Who Owns Art From Guantánamo Bay? Not Prisoners, U.S. Says". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  9. ^ "Erin Thompson". IMDb. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  10. ^ Lacey Kestecher (June 26, 2020). "Prof offers advice on how to destroy monuments 'faster'".
  11. ^ Carlson, Tucker (Jun 13, 2020). "Tucker Carlson: Don't destroy America's history and shared heritage". Fox News. Retrieved Apr 17, 2021.
  12. ^ Thompson, Erin L. (January 2016). Possession. ISBN 9780300208528.
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