Transcript

5.14.26 · Smithsonian Magazine

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Speaker 1: Welcome. This is Rebecca Shore for Radio Eye and to
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day I will be reading the Smithsonian Magazine dated April
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May twenty twenty six. As a reminder, Radio I is
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a reading service intended for people who are blind or
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have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Please join me now for the first article, which is
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part two of To Finance Their Lifestyle, a young French
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couple went to Cambodia to steal antiquities. They did almost
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everything wrong by Joshua Hammer. In part one, we learned
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how Andrea and Clara Malroe traveled to French end to
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China in nineteen twenty three under the false pretense of
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conducting research, when in fact they intended to steal valuable
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Khmer antiquities from Cambodia's Bantier Srie Temple and sell them abroad.
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Motivated by money, adventure, and a sense of impunity, the
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couple carefully studied the site and colonial regulations, recruited an accomplice,
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and removed carved sandstone reliefs from the temple. Their plan
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quickly unraveled, however, when suspicious colonial officials and museum director
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George Grasiers tracked them seized the stolen artifacts and had
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them arrested before they could escape to Saigon. Beyond the
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dramatic heist, Part one places the episode in the broader
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context of French colonialism and the long history of Western
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appropriation of Cambodian cultural heritage. While Molroux later became a
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celebrated writer, resistance fighter, and French cultural minister, this scandal
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remained a defining contradiction in his life, revealing him as
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both intellectually brilliant and morally compromised. The incident also foreshadowed
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later debates over who has the right to possess and
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protect cultural treasures, especially those taken under colonial rule, and
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suggests that Malro's exposure to colonial injustice during the trial
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may have helped push him toward later anti colonial politics.
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Here now it is Part two. Malro's conviction, wrote the
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American literary critic Roger Shattuck in nineteen sixty eight, had
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a traumatic effect, forcing Malroe to square off with the
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dark angel of his own past. Malro continued to define
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himself as a foe of authoritarianism and a voice of
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the oppressed. When civil war broke out in Spain and
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July nineteen thirty six. He used his rising influence to
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secure French aircraft on behalf of the Republicans, then organized
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air crews and accompanied them on operations. He joined the
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French resistance in nineteen forty four, taking part in the
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harassment of an SS division as it moved north to
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join the Battle for Normandy. In July of that year,
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he was wounded and captured, then was left behind in
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a Tuloose prison camp when the Germans retreated. Malroe met
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Charles de Gaulle at the end of the war and
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was captivated by the general, regarding him as another self
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made and charismatic man of action. The admiration was mutual. Later,
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when de gaul became president, he looked into Malro's background
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and saw the crime in Cambodia as no impediment to
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his appointment as France's first Minister of Cultural Affairs in
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nineteen fifty nine. Says Lea Genovez, an expert in French
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Endochina and a biographer of the Malrose. He was widely
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regarded as an ambitious and effective minister, renovating much of
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the country's deteriorating state architecture, democratizing the arts by opening
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Maison de la culture, state funded cultural centers in many
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provincial cities, and revitalizing the Louver, the Comade Francaise, and
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other great insctitutions. Malroe moved easily in circles of power.
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He formed a close attachment to the Kennedys, escorted the
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First Lady during trips to Paris, and visited her in
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the United States after her husband's assassination. He bade a
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memorable state trip to China in nineteen sixty five, where
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he was feted by Premier Jean Lai and met with
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Chairman Mau Zidong for several hours. Malroe came away impressed
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by Mao's mastery of global affairs, and before Nixon's groundbreaking
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tripp to China seven years later, the President conferred with
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Malroe in the White House about Mao's character and mindset.
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One of the few places Malroe found himself unwelcome was Cambodia.
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A planned visit with de gaul in nineteen sixty eight
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had to be aborted after George Gralier's son, Bernard Philippe,
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then the Conservatory of Encor, threatened to quit in protest.
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Despite his accomplishments, Malroe remained something of the hustler and
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prevaricator of his youth. He had an endless capacity for
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self mythologizing. In the introduction to the first edition of
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Man's Fate, he claimed falsely that he had served on
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a twelve man revolutionary committee in Canton in nineteen twenty
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four and participated in hand to hand fighting. In his biography,
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Olivier Todd wrote that Malroe exaggerated his relationship with Mao
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as well as his heroics during World War II, and
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may even have made off with resistance funds after the
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Nazi surrender. By then, he was separated from Clara, who
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survived World War II in hiding and later carved out
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a successful career as a novelist and memoirist. She died
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in nineteen eighty two, half a century after Andrea Malroe's
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death in nineteen seventy six. The Cambodian Misadventure divides opinion
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about him. Was he a con man and a scoundrel,
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a renegade romantic. Many Cambodians still view him as epitomizing
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the greed and arrogance of the colonial system. Yuk Chang,
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the founding director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in
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Pennon Pen, which records Cambodia's turbulent recent history, says Malro's
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lack of contrition and rise to the top of the
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French establishment sent the message from the country's former colonizer
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that Cambodia still belongs to us. Nor did the theft
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of Cambodian antiquities end with Malroe. Far from it. Artifacts
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were misappropriated throughout the French colonial period, which ended in
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nineteen fifty four. The murderous Khmer Rouge regime officially prohibited
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the destruction of temples, but cadres often trafficked in antiquities
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to finance their activities. After the regime fell in nineteen
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seventy nine, lawlessness and civil strife engulfed the country, and
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looting continued without rest for twenty or more years. Late
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last year, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art returned
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three Khmer sculptures to Cambodia after determining that they were
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likely looted during the nineteen sixties or seventies. In twenty nineteen,
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prosecutors in New York indicted Douglas Latchford, a British expat
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living in Thailand, charging him with using New York Bank
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accounts to facilitate a wide scale theft and smuggling operation
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dating to the nineteen nineties. Latchford employed dozens of thieves
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to chisel off hundreds of sculptures and snatch bronze figurines
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from Khmer temples. He reportedly earned tens of millions of
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dollars faking providences and selling the art to private collectors
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and Western museums. Latchford died in twenty twenty before standing trial,
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and the extent of his crimes is only now coming
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to light. Malrose Vanishing Act in nineteen two twenty three
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stopped at the border, but Lashford's did not, says Brad Gordon,
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an American lawyer who was assisting Cambodia in tracking down
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its lost art. He proudly trafficked Cambodia's treasures into prestigious
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Western institutions and into the living rooms of billionaires. Genevese,
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reflecting on what she calls Malroe's juvenile indiscretion, further distinguishes
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between the crimes, arguing that in Malroe's case, the friezes
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were returned without lasting damage to Bonte Srie unwilling to
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be generous toward Malroe, she says. Today, Bonte Srie has
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emerged as one of Cambodia's most popular attractions. Perhaps ironically,
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its fortunes improved profoundly as a result of Malroe's desecration.
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In January nineteen twenty four, Enrie Parmentier, the Eco Francaise
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Dextreme orient E f e o's head of archaeology, trucked
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to the ruins to verify what malrou had stolen, then
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oversaw the effort to clear vegetation, inventory artifacts and translate
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inscriptions in Sanskrit and Old Khmer. Seven years later, Henrey Marshal,
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the conservator of Encor, reassembled the toppled temples, using both
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the original stones and modern materials. I visited the complex
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late on a July afternoon, arriving at the same moment
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as a tour group consisting of dozens of Cambodian women
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wearing identical purple dresses. Following the throng down a stone
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corridor described by Malroe in the Royal Way, I emerged
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into daylight to see the temples directly in front of me.
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The three small prasat that Malroux had defaced intact again
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glowed in the setting sun. The smiling goddesses perched on
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pedestals inside shallow niches, heads tilted, hair pulled tight beneath
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elaborate grounds with dangling lotus petal ear rings. Each wore
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a sarong and an ornamental sash. The frames around the
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niches were rich with curving vines, angelic attendants, crowned birds, scrolls,
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curly cues, and rosettes, all carved from the same reddish
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pink sandstone. The tenth century Khmer sculptors had created these
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devatas with such detailed vibrancy that they seemed ready to
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leap off of the facade. After they carved the eyes
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and finished the statue, they believed that the essence of
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the god was now incarnated. Olivier Cuneen, a French archaeologist
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who had studied the temple for a quarter century, told
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me in sem Reepp Malreaux had snatched away the deities
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in an act of avarice and sacrilege. Now the gods
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were smiling again, and accompanying this article did as you know.
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A timeline of the Khmer Empire. In AD eight oh two, Jayavarman,
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the second united fragmented Cambodian kingdoms, founding the Empire and
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establishing several important settlements. Surya Varman the second dramatically expanded
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the Empire's territory between eleven thirteen and eleven fifty and
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commissioned its architectural masterpiece on Garvat. His cousin, Jayavarman the
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seventh later built the Buddhist Bayon complex major road networks
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and hospitals. In fourteen thirty one, a neighboring Thai kingdom
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based near modern day Bangkok, sacked a weak and already
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declining encore, and within decades the capital was largely abandoned. Next,
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the spirited revolutionary who led the fight for independence in
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Corsica also inspired America as colonial rabble rousers. Pasquale Paoli
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was a small fish fighting an entire empire four thousand
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miles away. The founding fathers were watching and taking notes
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by Anna Richards. In seventeen fifty five, tensions were beginning
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to rise in the American colonies following the outbreak of
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the French and Indian War. Yet one of that year's
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most consequential developments for American independence happened on a Mediterranean
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island more than four thousand miles away. After more than
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two decades of struggle, the Corsican people declared independence from
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their Genoese overlords, who had laid claim to the island
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for five hundred years. Would be revolutionaries in America soon
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followed the situation in Corsica with interest. Colonial rabble rousers
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were especially fired up by the exploits of Pasquale Paoli,
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Chosen as the leader of independent Corsica, particularly in the
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seventeen sixties, Paoli became a media sensation in America, and
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inspired by this Paoli fever, patriots went on to name
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towns and even children after the Great Corsican. In seventeen
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sixty seven, the New York Journal dubbed him the greatest
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man on Earth. Paoli's name thus became a byword in
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the colonies, and with good reason. By any measure, he
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was a courageous innovator. With his return to Corsica, the
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island became independent for the first time since the early
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Middle Ages, and he even helped push through a constitution,
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likely the first ever written down in groundbreaking fashion. Paoli's
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constitution separated powers into executive and legislative branches and allowed
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male citizens above the age of twenty five to elect representatives,
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regardless of race and whether they owned property. A woman
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could even vote, as long as she was over twenty
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five and single, or a whims. As Paoli declared in
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the preamble, Corsica's new government, now legitimately master of itself,
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having reconquered its liberty, would ensure the happiness of the
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nation before independence, says Marchandria Perrot, a historian at the
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University of Corsica. Eager American patriots latched onto Paoli. He
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was a symbol, a small fish fighting an entire empire
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outside the island itself. Little remains in public memory of
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the Corsican Revolution today, but Corsica's drive toward freedom proved
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a potent inspiration for independence efforts in the American colonies,
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stirring up revolutionary spirit among rebels. This small island had
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shown that a humble vassal state could throw off an
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empire and write its own rules, building its independence on
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a foundation of inherent universal ideals of equality. Beca's strategic
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location between the Mediterranean, Tyrehnian and Ligurian seas had long
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attracted would be conquerors. The Greeks arrived around five sixty BC.
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Then the Carthaginians and Etruscans vied against the Greeks for
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the island for more than three hundred years before Corsica
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entered the Roman Empire's sphere of influence in two fifty
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nine BC. After the fall of Rome, Corsica was briefly
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part of the Vandal Empire beginning in four fifty five,
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then came under the control of the Byzantine Empire early
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the next century five thirty four. The Lombards, under the
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direction of Charlemagne, then took over in seventy four. During
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the ninth century, Corsica was the subject of a number
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of Saracen invasions. The island then passed through the hands
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of the Pope and the bishop of the city state
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of Pisa, before falling in twelve eighty four under the
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influence of the maritime Republic of Genoa, which held the
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territory for nearly five hundred years. When Paoli's father, Jiacento
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was born at the end of the seventeenth century, Corsican
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autonomy must have been a distant memory. Yet by the
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turn of the eighteenth century, discontent was rife and living
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conditions extremely poor, and Corsicans began to resent Genoese's rule.
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Born in seventeen twenty five, Paoli grew up in a
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land defined by rebellion. In seventeen twenty nine, Corsican peasants
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refused to pay taxes to Genoa after a poor harvest,
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and thus began the Corsican Revolution. Jacento became one of
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its leaders. In seventeen thirty four, when Paoli was just fourteen,
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Jacento went into exile and settled in Naples. Paoli went
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with his father, and in April seventeen fifty five, at
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age thirty, he returned to Corsica. In July of that year,
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leaders of the insurrection appointed him general Chef de la Nacion.
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He then realized his father's dream of making Corsica an
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independent state, and, perhaps most consequentially for his American followers,
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successfully enshrined the Corsican constitution. A young James Boswell, the
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Scottish writer who became famous for his biography of Samuel Johnson,
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first wrote about Corsica during his Grand tour of Europe,
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begun in seventeen sixty four. He set out hoping to
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meet some of the most notable men of the age,
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and secured audiences with two luminaries of French thought and literature,
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visiting Voltaire and France, and Jean Jacques Rousseau in Switzerland. Rousseau,
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an avowed admirer of the Corsican experiment, wrote Boswell a
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letter of recommendation to present to Paoli, which Boswell considered invaluable.
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In October seventeen sixty five, the twenty four year old
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Boswell made for Corsica. He spent just a few days
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in Paoli's company and only a month or so in Corsica. Overall,
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traveling about the island would have been slow and complicated.
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There were very few roads on Corsica at the time,
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but the freedom inscribed in the country's document inspired Boswell.
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He wrote a memoir of his trip, An Account of Corsica,
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The Journal of a Tour to that Island and Memoirs
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of Pascal Paoli, was published in London in seventeen sixty eight.
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The book presented a glowing account of Paoli, his constitution,
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the Corsican Revolution, and the island in general. It was
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a sympathetic, warmly propagandistic portrait of a people yearning to
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be free, while its depiction of Paoli was superlative and
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closely observed. As Boswell described their first meeting, I had
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stood in the presence of many a prince, but I
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never had such a trial as in the presence of Paoli.
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In consequence of his being in continued danger from treachery
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and assassination, he has formed a habit of studiously observing
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every new face. For ten minutes, we walked backward and
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forward through the room, hardly saying a word, while he
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looked at me with a steadfast, keen and penetrating eye,
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as if he searched my very soul. The book proved
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a roaring success in Britain. It sold thousands of copies
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and became a bestseller, but its publication in the colonies
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later that year, just three years after the Stamp Act
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was imposed, resonated all the more among a population chafing
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under British taxes. American newspapers reported eagerly on events in Corsica,
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even quoting liberally from Boswell's memoir, but Corsica's independence was
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already slipping. On May fifteenth, seventeen sixty eight, just three
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months after Boswell's account, of Corsica was published, Louis the
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fifteenth of France annexed to the island, and Paoli fled. Yet,
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even while Paoli was on his back foot, support for
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him and the colonies only seemed to increase. Ebenezer Macintosh,
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one of the Boston based leaders of the Stamp Act protests,
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perhaps most famous for parading an effigy of a British
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tax collector through the streets, welcomed a son in seventeen
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sixty nine, naming him Paschal Paoli Macintosh after his revolutionary hero.
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In the same year, an entrepreneur inspired by Corsican independence
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founded the General Paoli Tavern, around which grew a town
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to deign known as Paoli, Pennsylvania. In the century and
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a half that followed, town's Dame Paoli would appear in Oklahoma, Colorado, Indiana,
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and beyond. Benjamin Franklin offered enthusiastic praise for the rebellious
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spirit of the Corsicans, and lamented that France, while it
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boasts of enjoying freedom itself, would ruin Corsica for vindicating
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their common right to it. George Washington, too, stayed abreast
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of the developments from Corsica, thanks to Andrew Burnaby, the
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English travel writer serving as a chaplain to the British
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mission in Livorno, Tuscany, who sent the future first President
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news of the island, even reporting in one letter that
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the French common soldiers were deserting to Paoli in great numbers.
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Founding Father John Hancock named one of his merchant ships
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the Paoli in seventeen sixty nine. The vogue for Paoli
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gave educated elites in the Western world a new way
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to envision political leadership, writes David A. Bell, a historian
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of France in his twenty twenty book Men on Horseback,
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The Power of Charisma in the us Age of Revolution.
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For a brief moment in the seventeen sixties and seventeen seventies,
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Paoli stood out as one of the most revered and
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well known figures in the Western world, and the most
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important exemplar before George Washington of a new and potent
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form of political charisma. But ideals require power in order
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to spread, and Corsica's strength was limited. Once French forces
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defeated Paoli's troops at the Battle of Pontinovou in May
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seventeen sixty nine, Paoli fled to Britain in exile. Corsican independence,
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after fourteen short years, was over. France's occupation of Corsica
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didn't dampen American interest in Paoli, including among the future
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Founding Fathers. In seventeen seventy five, Alexander Hamilton and fellow
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students at King's College later Columbia University were part of
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a militia initially known as the Corsicans, and though the
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Founding Fathers didn't explicitly cite Paoli's Constitution as an inspiration,
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the American Constitution, written in seventeen eighty seven, bears marked
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similarities to Paoli's seventeen fifty five document. Both were based
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on Enlightenment principles. Paoli, through his close collaborator Matteo Budifuco,
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had even asked Rousseau to help draft the island's new laws,
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which the Great Thinker undertook but didn't publish during his lifetime,
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and separated powers into executive and legislative branches, with representatives
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elected by a remarkably free vote for the period, enacting
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the will of the people. Of course, the Corsican struggle
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for independence was hardly over. In seventeen ninety After the
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beginning of the French Revolution, Paoli returned to Corsica, where
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he was instated as the president of the regional government
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seventeen ninety two, though his relationship with French revolutionaries was
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turning sour, and in April seventeen ninety three, the French
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government ordered his arrest, alleging that he had conspired to
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hand Corsica over to Britain. Two months later, Corsica was
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in full rebellion against France, and by September seventeen ninety three,
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the Republicans were left with only a few positions on
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the coast. Corsica was clinging to independence by a thread.
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In the Age of Empire, Paoli needed the protection of
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a bigger partner. He wrote to British Prime Minister William Pitt,
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Captain Samuel Hood, then commander of a ship in Britain's fleet,
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and George the Third, asking for military support. Finally, in
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June seventeen ninety four, Paoli allied with Britain to form
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the Anglo Corsican Kingdom, a constitutional monarchy under the British Empire.
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Arrangement was not to last. In seventeen ninety five, Paoli
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was forced back into exile in Britain, where he lived
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until his death in eighteen o seven, and the island
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fell back under the Sway of France, which resumed control
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in seventeen ninety six. Corsica remains a part of France today.
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News reports on Corsica seem to have dried up in
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the newly formed United States of America after the Revolution. Nonetheless,
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four towns named after Paoli are still there. Paoli Pennsylvania
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has kept particularly close links with Corsica, and in twenty
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twenty five even organized visits to Marisaglia, where Paoli was born,
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for the three hundredth anniversary of his birth. The American
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visitors donated a plaque on behalf of the town, and
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one of their civic leaders, Edward Abel, declared that Paoli
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had abode embodied an ideal of liberty, an example for
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Americans fighting for their own independence. For US, Paoli's name
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symbolizes democracy and accompanying this article, did you know Corsica?
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During World War II, in November nineteen forty two, the
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Italian Army occupied Corsica, just three days after the Allies
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landed in North Africa for Operation Torch. The following September,
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thanks to Italian and French freedom fighters, Corsica was the
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first French territory freed from axis rule. Finally, ask Smithsonian,
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you've got questions, We've got experts. Why do so few
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bammels go through menopause? The answer is from Janine Brown,
26:51
research physiologist, National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Menopause happens
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when the older female of a species remain physically capable
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of contributing to their group's survival even as their ovarian
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follicles become depleted. This is a rare occurrence among wild
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animals because natural selection favors continued reproduction. More offspring means
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more descendants in the gene pool. According to the dominant theory,
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menopause is believed to evolve only in species where the
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payoff from helping existing children and grandchildren exceeds the benefits
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of producing more offspring. These are species that have long
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life spans, extended periods of offspring dependency, and stable multi
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generational social groups, where post reproductive females can meaningfully increase
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their descendant's survival. Menopause has been found in one population
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of chimpanzees and in one individual captive orangutan generally, though
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only humans and certain toothed whales meet the stringent requirements.
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This concludes readings from the Smithsonian Magazine for today. Your
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reader has been Rebecca Shore. Thank you for listening, and
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have a great day.