Moderator Maxwell L. Anderson, the Melvin & Bren Simon Director and CEO of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, will lead five panelists in an exploration of the complex issues surrounding the protection of cultural heritage. Anderson has promoted long-term loans of antiquities from museums throughout Europe and in Mexico since becoming a museum director in 1987 and was knighted in 1990 by the Italian Republic for his efforts to protect its archaeological heritage.

The panelists are as follows:
Elizabeth Bartman: President of the Archaeological Institute of America and an independent scholar.
Patty Gerstenblith: Distinguished Research Professor and Director of the Center for Art, Museum and Cultural Heritage Law at DePaul University College of Law. President Obama has announced his intent to nominate Gerstenblith as Chairman of the United States Cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC).
Dan L. Monroe: Executive Director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum and President of the Association of Art Museum Directors.
David O’Connor: Deputy Director and Lila Acheson Wallace Professor of Ancient Egyptian Art at the Institute of Fine Arts–New York University and Co-Director of Yale University-University of Pennsylvania-Institute of Fine Arts, NYU Excavations at Abydos.
Jerry Podany: Head of the Department of Antiquities Conservation at the J. Paul Getty Museum and President of the International Institute for Conservation.

“Shifting Challenges in the Protection of Archaeological Heritage” is organized by the American Federation of Arts in association with the Institute of Fine Arts–New York University and the Association of Art Museum Directors with generous funding from Michael H. Steinhardt, the Leon Levy Foundation, the Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation, and the Hazen Polsky Foundation, Inc.