Apsara Iyer
{{Short description|American legal scholar and art crime investigator}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Undue weight|date=August 2024}}
{{POV|date=August 2024}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2024}}
Apsara Iyer is an American art crime investigator and the 137th president of the Harvard Law Review.{{Cite news |last=Raymond |first=Nate |date=January 31, 2023 |title=Harvard Law Review picks antiquities theft sleuth as new president |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/harvard-law-review-picks-antiquities-theft-sleuth-new-president-2023-01-31/ |access-date=February 10, 2023}}{{Cite web |title=Harvard Law Review Elects Apsara Iyer as 137th President {{!}} News {{!}} The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/2/6/harvard-law-review-iyer/ |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=www.thecrimson.com}} She is the first Indian American woman to be elected to that position.
Early life and education
Iyer was born in Chicago and raised in West Lafayette, Indiana.{{Cite web |last=D'Arcy |first=David |date=April 3, 2023 |title=Antiquities trafficking investigator appointed president of Harvard Law Review—a position once held by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Barack Obama |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/04/03/antiquities-trafficking-president-of-harvard-law-review-apsara-iyer |access-date=April 10, 2023 |website=The Art Newspaper}} She attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and then Yale University, where she received a bachelor's in Spanish and in economics and math. In 2012, she was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} She was awarded the Clarendon Fund scholarship to pursue graduate studies at University of Oxford, where she received an MPhil in economics.{{Cite web |date=January 30, 2023 |title=Apsara Iyer '24 elected president of the Harvard Law Review |url=https://hls.harvard.edu/today/apsara-iyer-24-elected-president-of-the-harvard-law-review/ |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=Harvard Law School}}
Career
=Work to counter antiquities trafficking and art crime=
In 2018, Iyer joined the Antiquities Trafficking Unit within the New York County District Attorney's office, working with Matthew Bogdanos on major cases related to art and crime, the illicit antiquities trade, and looted art.{{Cite news |last=Mashberg |first=Tom |date=November 17, 2021 |title=Looking for a Stolen Idol? Visit the Museum of the Manhattan D.A.|work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/arts/design/antiquities-manhattan-da.html |access-date=February 10, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}{{subscription required|date=February 2024}} She has been instrumental in the return of numerous looted, stolen, and trafficked cultural objects to their countries of origin.{{Cite web |date=January 5, 2023 |title=D.A. Bragg Returns Stolen Antiquity to the Palestinian Authority |url=https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-returns-stolen-antiquity-to-the-palestinian-authority/ |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=Manhattan District Attorney's Office}}{{Cite web |date=October 17, 2022 |title=D.A. Bragg Returns 307 Stolen Antiquities to the People of India |url=https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-returns-307-stolen-antiquities-to-the-people-of-india/ |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=Manhattan District Attorney's Office}}{{Cite web |date=July 20, 2022 |title=D.A. Bragg Returns 142 Antiquities Valued at Nearly $14 Million to the People of Italy |url=https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-returns-142-antiquities-valued-at-nearly-14-million-to-the-people-of-italy/ |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=Manhattan District Attorney's Office}}{{Cite web |date=December 14, 2022 |title=D.A. Bragg Announces Return of Antiquities Looted from the Iraqi Museum in 2003 |url=https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-announces-return-of-antiquities-looted-from-the-iraqi-museum-in-2003/ |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=Manhattan District Attorney's Office}}{{Cite web |date=September 6, 2022 |title=D.A. Bragg Returns 58 Stolen Antiquities to the People of Italy |url=https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-returns-58-stolen-antiquities-to-the-people-of-italy/ |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=Manhattan District Attorney's Office}}{{Cite web |title=Black Rock of Durga Stele returned to people of Nepal |url=https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/black-rock-durga-stele-returned-people-nepal |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=www.ice.gov|date=September 6, 2022 }}{{Cite web |last=Cambodia |first=U. S. Mission |date=June 10, 2021 |title=Manhattan D.A.'s Office Returns 27 Antiquities to Cambodia |url=https://kh.usembassy.gov/manhattan-d-a-s-office-returns-27-antiquities-to-cambodia/ |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=U.S. Embassy in Cambodia}} She has been involved in the repatriation of cultural property to 15 different countries, amounting to the return of over 1,100 stolen cultural objects.
In 2021, Iyer spent a summer working with Donna Yates at Maastricht University, researching the application of statutes of limitations in cultural property cases as a Chayes International Public Service Fellow.{{Cite web |last=Kunycky |first=Audrey |title=Expanding their horizons |url=https://hls.harvard.edu/today/expanding-their-horizons/ |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=Harvard Law School}}
Prior to this, she was a volunteer researcher in the Trafficking Culture research consortium and at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Cultural Heritage Center.{{Cite web |title=Participants |url=http://www.visualheritageproject.org/participants.html |access-date=February 10, 2023 |website=The Visual Heritage Project}}
=''Harvard Law Review'' Palestinian genocide article controversy=
Amidst the Gaza war, two editors of the Harvard Law Review solicited an article by Harvard PhD candidate and human rights lawyer Rabea Eghbariah, which "argue[d] that the atrocities in Gaza amount to genocide" and that "the distinctive nature of the domination Palestinians have faced should demand a new category of crime: 'Nakba'."{{Cite news |last=Eghbariah |first=Rabea |date=November 22, 2023 |title=The "Harvard Law Review" Refused to Run This Piece About Genocide in Gaza |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/harvard-law-review-gaza-israel-genocide/ |access-date=November 24, 2023 |issn=0027-8378}} After the article was edited, fact-checked, and initially approved, Iyer intervened to stop its publication, citing safety concerns.{{Cite news |last=Tait |first=Robert |date=November 22, 2023 |title=Harvard journal accused of censoring article alleging genocide in Gaza|work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/22/harvard-law-pro-palestinian-letter-gaza-israel-censorship |access-date=November 24, 2023 |issn=0261-3077}} After this, an emergency meeting of 100 editors of the Harvard Law Review was called and an anonymous vote was held, in which 63% of editors voted against publication.{{Cite web|url=https://theintercept.com/2023/11/21/harvard-law-review-gaza-israel/|title=Harvard Law Review Editors Vote to Kill Article About Genocide in Gaza|first=Natasha|last=Lennard|date=November 22, 2023|website=The Intercept}} This move generated public controversy among editors and others.{{Cite web |title=The Nation Publishes Gaza Genocide Article Killed by Harvard Law Review |url=https://www.commondreams.org/news/harvard-law-review-gaza-genocide |access-date=November 25, 2023 |website=www.commondreams.org}}{{Cite web |date=November 24, 2023 |title=Harvard journal allegedly censors article holding Israel responsible for genocide |url=https://arab.news/8eh3e |access-date=November 25, 2023 |website=Arab News}}