BEFORE THE 1936 EXHIBITION: TENSIONS AND CONTRADICTIONS IN THE EXPORT OF ANTIQUITIES ON THE EVE OF THE KNOSSOS EXCAVATIONS

This paper revisits a seemingly straightforward question: why were the early excavations at Knossos not conducted under the auspices of the British School at Athens? It argues that a key factor lay in the exportation of antiquities, a practice with which the School was reluctant to be formally associated, yet in which its members nonetheless participated. Through an examination of Arthur Evans’ acquisition of objects in Greece in the late 1890s, contemporary interpretations of Greek and Cretan antiquities legislation, and the networks and routes through which objects circulated, the paper situates Knossos within a broader ecology of negotiated legality. Attention is also given to Greek perspectives, particularly those of Iosif Hatzidakis and Panagis Kavvadias, foregrounding local agency and contestation. By tracing the trajectories of objects that ultimately reached Britain – many of which were later displayed in the 1936 London exhibition celebrating 50 years of the British School’s archaeological work in Greece – the paper highlights the tensions between law, practice, and ethics on the eve of the Knossos excavations. It concludes by framing these processes as part of a dialectic of law and infringement that complicates triumphant narratives of archaeological discovery and invites reflection on the ethical foundations of museum collections.