An auction of artifacts crafted by Japanese Americans imprisoned in WWII internment camps has provoked widespread outrage, the New York Times' Arts Beat reports.
The New Jersey auction house Rago plans to auction not only objects made at the camps—such as ornate family nameplates carved in wood attached to the barracks—but also photographs of internees.
Between 110,00 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated in camps during WWII, the majority of them US citizens.
Some 450 pieces are slated to be auctioned on Friday. They come from a collection assembled by Allen Hendershott Eaton, a crafts historian who analyzed it in his 1952 book, “Beauty Behind Barbed Wire: The Arts of the Japanese in Our War Relocation Camps."
The book describes the internees' resourcefulness and attempts to preserve traditions despite their desolate situation, using salvaged materials.
The family of the auction's unnamed consignor acquired the collection from Eaton's descendant. The original intention was for it to be dedicated to a museum.
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Japanese Americans protesting the sale argue that postponing the auction would allow for research into a better solution for the items, which should be kept together.
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The consignor, on the other hand, has described the protests as a “social media attack" from the descendants, meant to “bully us into compliance with their demands."