Should Museums Give Back Artefacts

[emmie]

to countries they were removed from years ago.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-46222276

[KARL]

If that country asks for their return, then yes.

[emmie]

one artefact that has gone back home.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46252520

[rowanwitch]

I think this is especially relevant in the case of human remains. I don't believe in an afterlife but it was once very important to someone that death should be followed by either ritual or disposal in other ways.
Maybe religious artefacts too but I am less bothered about those.

Copy and share the copies, we can now create virtual experiences perhaps that is the way to bring history alive rather than objects viewed out of context in echoing halls

[SparklyKid]

Absolutely not, bit like asking for the return of a comic I swopped 65 years ago for a penny chew.

[jim360]

Why is it anti-British to ask if the native peoples ought to have their stuff back?

[rowanwitch]

Things were taken from other nations people as plunder. If it can't be proved a thing was obtained by trade it should go back. If you had something stolen that was important to you you would want it back.

[Spicerack]

Everybody plundered. Even Easter Islanders (with the added bonus, they could eat the prisoners)
Talking of Easter Islanders, I don't know who these chancers are who are coming for a taxpayer funded beano but Easter Islanders they are not.
Pretty sure the civilization wot built the Big Eads kept building bigger and bigger Eads until they used up all the wood on the islands and extinguished themselves, they are gone, they are no moa.

[ludwig]

// Pillage has taken place by conquering countries all over the World, if their loot was given back, half the World's museums would be empty. //

We'd also be able to claim back from the modern aristocracy all the land that was pillaged by the Normans after 1066. Lots of stuff has been robbed by lots of people over the years. It's just how things worked. It's pointless trying to undo it all after so long.

[emmie]

ludwig you certainly have a point, but some of these artefacts aren't that old, those that are could or should be returned to their country of origin. We could make good copies im sure.

[Peter Pedant]

// It would of been better preserved in a chamber of a pyramid from whence it came.//

um not an awful lot came from pyramids to he honest

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/egypts-museum-islamic-art-re-opens-180962057/

the water damage bit was from car bombs and the sprinkler system was turned on - hardly a good advert that the objaaaaayze will be looked after if they are returned

[emmie]

PP there is that of course, will they be looked after or looted, or even bombed as we have seen with ISIS.

[ludwig]

// ludwig you certainly have a point, but some of these artefacts aren't that old, those that are could or should be returned to their country of origin. We could make good copies im sure. //

You could make a case for some things, but if you go down a route of returning every artefact that was ever taken from anywhere back to it's place of origin, it just becomes ridiculous. The amount of stuff is massive.

[jno]

retrocop, the British Museum badly damaged the Elgin Marbles during a hamfisted attempt to clean them in the 1930s. They managed to cover it up for 60 years.

It's certainly not a given that they'd have been worse off if left in Athens.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/elgin-marbles-scraped-clean-1163642.html

[Spicerack]

Is that a true story, jno, or did you read it in The Independent?
You can't move on Easter Island without bumping into a big head or stubbing your toe on the hundreds they knocked over.
This is the left wing politics of spite writ large.

[jno]

it was first uncovered by the Sunday Times, as I recall, but you need to subscribe to read it there.