The Compensations of Plunder

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From the early 1890s to World War I, countless manuscripts and artworks were taken from northwestern China and brought to museums and libraries abroad, thanks not only to opportunistic explorers but also the Chinese officials who hosted them. In The Compensations of Plunder, historian Justin M. Jacobs contends that trans-imperial upper-class loyalties explain this surprising cooperation between Western archaeologists and local elites who gave them access to local treasures. As the imperial age drew to a close, the antiquities themselves went from being "diplomatic capital" that was traded among a cosmopolitan elite to disputed icons of the emerging nation-state. Based on a wealth of sources in several languages, Jacobs's book examines the nuanced story of-and diverse motivations behind-the antiquities trade along the Silk Road and the unlikely, fraught partnerships that made it possible"--