Assistant Professor of Art History, Justin Walsh, will be giving a talk at Loyola Marymount College called “One Giant Leap for Mankind: Humanity’s Cultural Heritage in Space”on January 24 at 5pm in Ahmanson Auditorium (UH 1000) on Loyola’s campus near LAX. 



From the Parthenon Marbles to the Getty Museum, Native American burials to Thai pottery and Holocaust restitution cases, cultural heritage has received increasing attention around the world. But what about the historic and innovative objects humans have placed in space?


While significant sites and objects located here on Earth are granted substantial protections by national laws and international treaties, no such protection covers Tranquility Base, arguably the location of one of the most important achievements in human history, for example. What can — and should — be done about this situation? This talk will outline the history of cultural heritage, and explore the relevance of this concept to objects from our recent past that happen to be located in space or on other celestial bodies.