Egypt Wants Artifacts Back from World's Museums

Egypt Wants Artifacts Back from World's Museums

www.foxnews.com

Egypt will host a conference in April for countries demanding the return of their antiquities, stolen but on display in museums round the world, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said Wednesday.

The conference will "discuss the question of returning stolen antiquities," the council said in a statement. It gave no dates for the three-day conference.

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I am not sure what to think about this. Part of me says, heh, they belong in Egypt, return them to Egypt. However, I do want my children to be exposed to the Egyptian culture, and museums are a wonderful place to do that at. I was incredibly impressed by the craftmanship of King Tut's mask when it was on tour around the world 30 or so years ago. My children have studied the culture, along with Greek and Roman. I wouldn't want to take that away from them.

An interesting problem... and not a simple resolution. Perhaps make replicas? But for some reason, they just wouldn't have the same impact as the real thing.

www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Maybe...if they practiced the same religion and same culture as the ancient Egyptians.

Give back any Islam artifacts, if there are any. Nothing else.

Look at what other Islam theocracies have done to important historical artifacts.

It only takes one nut-job Imam to rise to power and decree it all is sacrilege and must be destroyed.

This treasure belongs to humanity.

There is a saying I am fond of... Finder's keepers loosers weepers.

This holds true for these stolen artifacts. Egypt wanted to keep them, they should have found them and housed them instead of letting others dig up the loot.

reply to post by TLomon


If Egypt gets it's antiquities back, many other countries should have stolen loot returned. Napolean "acquired" a good many such objects from many countries. Rome and Greece should also get back their antiquities as well as Central and South America.
Perhaps the best way to do this is to make replicas and return the originals. Who to return them to becomes the question in some cases.

reply to post by TLomon


Finders keepers, For whatever reason there no longer in Egypt, maybe they should have done a better job protecting there stuff, even though they were under colonial rule they had to have had an Interm or local goverments not run by the British.

Rome even looted some of these pyrmiads. This is like the Spanish wanting back bullion coins that was lost hundreds of years ago, but they were to lazy or stupid to go find it themselves.

but spain does want its lost gold coins back thats why they entered the treaty with us that states all naval vessels lost at sea are considered graveyards and are not to be disturbed. they did that to halt people raiding sunken treasure galleons. only country of orgin has salvage rights. do i agree with it no. you can bet your bananas that if i found a treasure galleon i would loot the hell out of it and melt down the gold and sell it as inherited bullion

reply to post by TLomon


Maybe the Anunaki will want them back too

reply to post by proteus33


Let's face it... if the ship is over 100 years old and it's contents are lost at see, how can anyone living claim ownership to what has been lost. Posession is 9 tenths of the law.

If I found a booty of treasure, I'm going to exploit it for all the wealth and beer nuts it can buy.

Here is another thought. Who owns gold that was obtained from an Egyptian tomb, melted down to make a Roman crown, then stolen by a French dictator?

This could potentionally open a very large can of worms.

Originally posted by YouAreDreaming
reply to post by proteus33

 

Let's face it... if the ship is over 100 years old and it's contents are lost at see, how can anyone living claim ownership to what has been lost. Posession is 9 tenths of the law.

If I found a booty of treasure, I'm going to exploit it for all the wealth and beer nuts it can buy.

Actually amazingly enough some of the best shipwrecks found in recent years by treasure and adventure hunters have ended up being then later claimed by the insurance companies in many cases. Some cargos dating back hundreds of years were actually insured by companies still in business or companies that were later bought by other companies still in business. All they have to do is prove that they paid the claim to the people who originally had insured the lost ship and its cargo and it’s all theirs then. They usually end up paying a finders fee or some kind of split with the discoverers and workers of the wreck.

So try to find a wreck that predates the insurance industry!

As far as Egyptian and other treasures are concerned I think that anything legally found and removed through the Egyptian’s Government’s consent at the time it was found and removed is certainly the property of who currently possesses it. To retroactively ask for things back that they in essence sold or contracted away through their own lawful governmental process at that point in time is ridiculous.

However in cases where things can be proven to have been looted and stolen then it’s a case for the international criminal courts to decide if the current owners don’t want to donate it back to Egypt.

It would be interesting to really know why Egypt wants them back though, national pride, to further develop their tourist industry or do they need the gold and precious gems worked into many of the artifacts back for some economic or other related means to their potential value.

Best option may be to keep the artifacts, and pay a lease to the country of origin at a discussed amount.

While this principally focused on Egypt, it seems this is also intended to apply to other countries as well, and I can understand it.
It'd be along similar lines to if someone looted Washington's or Franklin's tomb, or took the Declaration of Independence.

Originally posted by TLomon
I do want my children to be exposed to the Egyptian culture, and museums are a wonderful place to do that at.

Culture is more about people and less about "stuff". May I suggest sending your kids to Egypt instead.

I was incredibly impressed by the craftmanship of King Tut's mask when it was on tour around the world 30 or so years ago.

Me too, I still have the catalogue from The British Museum exhibition.

My children have studied the culture, along with Greek and Roman. I wouldn't want to take that away from them.

How are you taking it away from them if items were returned? They have memories, books, internet etc. One cannot learn everything about a culture from relics.

An interesting problem... and not a simple resolution. Perhaps make replicas? But for some reason, they just wouldn't have the same impact as the real thing.

Which is why they deserve their property back so native Egyptians can learn more about their own history from the genuine article.

I also remember seeing a holographic display of Russian Crown Jewels....amazing stuff.

Theft is theft after all. Give it all back.

Are the Egyptians going to reimburse the descendants of the slaves they abused for free labor as well?

What gold are the Spanish laying claim to? The boullion from melted down South American artifacts before it was made into coins and crowns or after it was made into coins and crowns, probably both I'm guessing.

Are they going to reimburse the descendants of all the natives they killed?

What is the value of tens of thousands of Mayan texts destroyed by Spanish missionaries?

...that are now lost forever thanks to religious zealots.


[edit on 6-1-2010 by Deny Arrogance]

[edit on 6-1-2010 by Deny Arrogance]

Right.

Next we'll be giving the United States back to the Cherokee.

Originally posted by YouAreDreaming
There is a saying I am fond of... Finder's keepers loosers weepers.

This holds true for these stolen artifacts. Egypt wanted to keep them, they should have found them and housed them instead of letting others dig up the loot.

So by your reasoning it would be OK to enter your property and dig up your lawn for display on my own property because you didn't stop me or get to it before I did.

Some of the artifacts were buried with the intention of them staying buried NOT because they were put there for "finding" but "stored" following rituals and beliefs.

What's your address again?....

This will just insure that future items looted or discovered will be immediately destroyed for their gold and other valuable properties instead of going on display in museums. Antiquities that are not made of gold will be abandoned and discarded. You cannot melt down pottery or sell it to a museum if the precedent is made so it will stay on the seabed or get shattered in the newly discovered tomb.

Originally posted by nerbot
So by your reasoning it would be OK to enter your property and dig up your lawn for display on my own property because you didn't stop me or get to it before I did.

Some of the artifacts were buried with the intention of them staying buried NOT because they were put there for "finding" but "stored" following rituals and beliefs.

What's your address again?....

Absolutely, you can come over and dig away. Take all the electrical wiring, pipes and what ever materials you can salvage from it. I won't stop you either, I'll sit on my porch, drink a beer and crack a can of beer nuts.

The fact is, every culture has been pillaged by other cultures since the dawn of time. Even the Gold that is in those tombs was probably stolen and robbed from the spoils of war and conquest.

Where did the Egyptians get all that gold, from slaves? From war? It's a vicious cycle of theft begets theft.

Are the Egyptians going to reimburse the descendants of the slaves they abused for free labor as well?

Minor point in context, but the Egyptians didn't have much by way of slave labor, the construction of the pyramids and temples of Egypt was done with the labor of the people and craftsmen.

reply to post by RuneSpider


I know that is one theory but I was not aware that it was proven.

Do you have a link to any conclusive evidence?