Controversial NYU Institute Gets Director

doi:10.1126/science.316.5822.185b

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After a yearlong search, officials at New York University (NYU) are hoping renowned classicist Roger Bagnall, appointed last week to head the new Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, will put the controversial institute on firm ground. The institute was created a year ago with $200 million from the Leon Levy Foundation, which drew criticism because the late Leon Levy owned antiquities that some experts claimed had been looted or illicitly traded (Science, 31 March 2006, p. 1846). "Archaeologists here and elsewhere will certainly be watching closely over the months ahead," says NYU anthropologist Randall White, who opposed the Levy arrangement.