Extraña devocion! (Strange devotion!), Plate 66 of “The Disasters of War”

This print depicts a coffin with a partially decomposed figure inside. Goya often used the donkey to represent the aristocracy and their affected, stubborn, unfocused lives. Chosen for its commentary on the absurd nature of blind devotion, this print illustrates the social forces behind taste and value, with the desire to collect often fed by unauthorized excavations from lands unsettled by conflict.In 1970, UNESCO adopted and ratified the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import and Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (“1970 UNESCO Convention”), to counter widespread, long-term looting and illicit trade in cultural property. The 1970 UNESCO Convention remains the key instrument in the fight against looted and stolen patrimony. In accordance with the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD)’s guidelines, entries for those objects acquired by the museum after 2008 are posted on the Johnson Museum’s website and cross-posted on AAMD’s online database, Object Registry: New Acquisitions of Archaeological Material and Works of Ancient Art. (“This is no Less Curious: Journeys through the Collection” cocurated by Sonja Gandert, Alexandra Palmer, and Alana Ryder and presented at the Johnson Museum January 24 – April 12, 2015)