Erin L. Thompson

Erin L. Thompson is a professor of art crime at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York. Her book, Possession: The Curious History of Private Collectors (Yale, 2016), looks at the reasons people collect antiquities, and her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, Los Angeles Review of Books Blog, The Kenyon Review, and others.

Object Lessons

I was convinced my body was dragging my soul to damnation. And so I tried to save myself by throwing myself away.