Zendaya's earrings reignite debate over ownership of ancient artefacts
Actress Zendaya, playing Athena in 'The Odyssey', wore earrings allegedly made from 1st millennium BC Iranian artefacts at a London photocall, sparking academic outcry and calls for provenance transparency.
Zendaya, who portrays the goddess Athena in the film 'The Odyssey', caused outrage at a London photocall by wearing earrings reportedly made from Iranian artefacts dating back to the 1st millennium BC.
According to Barron London, the Mayfair-based gallery that owns the earrings, the gold medallion plaques are 'attributed to the Ziwiye hoard, discovered in north-west Iran in the late 1940s'. They were purchased from another London jeweller, Glenn Spiro, who mounted them with diamonds in yellow gold.
While Barron London claims the jewellery celebrates 'the remarkable artistry of ancient Persian goldsmiths' and encourages 'wider appreciation of one of the world's great artistic traditions', academics hold a different view. A petition has been launched calling for the gallery to publish the complete known provenance of the gold plaques, reveal the checks undertaken on the legality of the items, permit examination, and even suspend sale.
Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis, an antiquities expert at the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, expressed surprise that no one among Zendaya's entourage spoke up to protect her. Romina Frohar, founder of the Forensic Archive of Iran, which set up the petition, said cultural appreciation cannot substitute for provenance transparency. Even if antiquities are authentic and lawfully possessed, ethical issues may arise, as private custody can only be responsible if it is transparent and conservation-led.
The earrings' journey from ancient Iran to an A-list actor involved the shadowy world of rare treasure trading, where priceless archaeological finds become high-end luxury trinkets. For example, online dealers currently offer an Egyptian mummy mask of beads from 664-332 BC, Hellenistic gold earrings with garnet and agate from the 3rd century BC, and a bronze dress pin with an ibex-like end from Iran, possibly 3,000 years old. In 2018, Christie's sold a 3,000-year-old relief from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II for nearly $31 million.
Tsirogiannis estimates that about 90% of antiquities on the market are illicit or lack proper documentation. He also questioned if the earrings come from a burial, how Zendaya feels wearing an ancient dead woman's earrings that may have been looted.
The issue of provenance and ownership extends beyond academia. The Koh-i-Noor diamond, surrendered to Queen Victoria in 1849 as part of the Treaty of Lahore, is now part of the British crown jewels. Simon Mackenzie, professor of criminology at Victoria University of Wellington, notes that most source countries now have state ownership laws, so looting ancient objects is essentially theft from the government.
Despite the outrage, celebrity attention can spark a conversation about provenance. In 2018, Kim Kardashian posed next to a gilded Egyptian coffin at the Met Gala; experts later revealed it had been excavated by thieves in 2011 and smuggled out of Egypt.
The legal and ethical problems with Zendaya's earrings may never be resolved, but as Tsirogiannis pointed out, the jewellery put the spotlight on Iran while promoting a film that has nothing to do with ancient Persia.
