Legitimate Looting in War and Conquest, ca.1500

Alfie Robinson, M.A.

My doctoral project examines looting from a new perspective, looking at the norms and customs, regulation and logistics of the theft of cultural artefacts during war. The research examines how looting was conceived of in the pre-modern period, with a focus on the years around 1500 and particularly the Sack of Rome in 1527. In this period, looters saw their actions as glorious and well-organised with an authoritative classical tradition behind them. Depictions of looting, as well as documentary sources in the Vatican and other archives will trace the appropriation of objects and property, and the poetics, logistics and customs behind such thefts. The thesis looks at how these legitimisations of an act now considered a war crime contributed to the destruction of cultural heritage but also a transformation of heritage: a cultural act.