Countries Demand Return of Stolen Artifacts
bbc - Global culture officials are meeting to discuss how to recover ancient treasures which they say have been stolen and displayed overseas.Twenty countries are represented at the two-day conference in Cairo.
It has been organised by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), which wants many pharaonic items returned by Western museums.
The SCA said the forum would discuss "the protection and restitution of cultural heritage."
Representatives include cultural officials from Greece, Italy, China and Peru - all of which have lost ancient artifacts over the centuries which that they now want back.
Greece has long demanded that the Parthenon Marbles should be given back by the British Museum, while Peru is taking legal action to try to reclaim Inca treasures from Yale University in the United States
Strategies under discussion at the conference include drawing up a single list of unique items to be returned to their countries of origin.
Representatives are also considering calling on the United Nations cultural body, Unesco, to amend a convention banning export and ownership of antiquities stolen after 1970 - so that they can pursue items that were snatched earlier, says the BBC's Yolande Knell in Cairo.
In recent years, the Egyptian authorities have stepped up their efforts to recover stolen artifacts, with the head of the SCA, Zahi Hawass, attracting international attention for his efforts.
Last year, he broke off ties with the Louvre museum until France returned fragments chipped from a wall painting in an ancient Egyptian tomb.
"We are the country with the loudest voice on this issue and have so far had returned about 5,000 artifacts," he said at the conference.
"We want to know how we can learn from each other, we need to co-operate to come up with one wish-list and fight until we return those artifacts back."
He has repeatedly asked for the Rosetta Stone - which has been kept in the British Museum for more than 200 years - and a 3,400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti on display in Berlin, to be given back to Egypt.
NOTE: As a former history and archaeology student, I can understand the requests...but torn by the loss of access to these artifacts for study that this policy would create. The SCA (namely Zahi Hawass) has a reputation of denying access to the inventory unless it involves a documentary where Hawass retains most of the camera time...Lon
Countries Demand Return of Stolen Artifacts
posted by Lon Strickler at 1:52 PM
2 Comments:
Tough issue.
Though, some artifacts, namely that bust of Nefertiti have very shady histories. They were all but smuggled out of the country and never properly documented during their excavation.
I know Hawass is a controversial figure but he has brought to light a very real problem.
Who is to say the Rosetta stone "belongs" to present day Egypt when it originally comes from a country far removed from modern Egypt? When the Rosetta stone was found, it was under Napoleonic occupation, thereafter under a melange of Ottomans, Mamluks, Albanians, etc... under the influence of various British rulers. The political state that exists now did not exist then, so the present country cannot claim that it was stolen from them. Not legally. In a cultural sense? Perhaps... And yet, if he weren't such a power-grubbing and greedy man (his formidible accomplishments not withstanding), I would agree with Hawass. So much has been taken by many countries - and not just the West (an obvious prejudice), but by countries like China and Japan as well. An agreement for sharing these cultural resources should be reached. We've much to learn about the past and ourselves by studying other cultures and coming to understand each other a bit more.
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