Chicago’s Field Museum is to return bones that were previously dug up from cemeteries on the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia.

From:
Chicago Sun Times

Field returning bones to native group
March 26, 2003
BY NANCY MOFFETT STAFF REPORTER

The Field Museum will return bones–mostly skulls–from about 160 native people who lived, logged and fished from islands off the coast of British Columbia.

The remains were dug up from cemeteries on the Queen Charlotte Islands and brought to Chicago in the early 1900s. Such returns represent one of the hottest international issues for museums.
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British Museum director, Neil MacGregor, is interviewed about the Parthenon Marbles. Unfortunately, his views on the subject are no more forward looking than those of his predecessor.

From:
Art & Antiques

Culture Clash

LONDON — The Elgin Marbles, an ensemble of friezes and sculptures taken from the Parthenon by a British nobleman, have been displayed in the British Museum since 1816. Museum Director Neil MacGregor took office in August and now stands at the center of the world’s most enduring conflict over cultural heritage. In a Q&A with Art & Antiques, MacGregor talks about Greece’s demands that the marbles be returned in time for the 2004 Olympics. He also touches on the venerable institution’s fiscal crisis.

A&A
About 40 percent of the Elgin Marbles are in Athens, 50 percent are here, and the rest are scattered around museums all over Europe. You’re an art historian. Wouldn’t it be nice to have them all in one place? Don’t the Greeks have a point on that?

NM
Of course they have a point, but half the marbles are lost forever. We’re talking about the proportions of what remains. They can’t get them up onto the Parthenon because it’s a ruin, so the argument that one normally makes for gathering things together from the same ensemble, that you are restoring or recovering the work of art, doesn’t apply here. One’s got to recognize that their life as part of the Parthenon is over. It seems to me rather a fortunate accident of history that about half of what survived is in London.
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Former Australian Broadcasting Corporation boss, David Hill, a campaigner for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures, is confident that they will soon be sent back to Athens.

From:
Sydney Morning Herald

Marbles are back in play
March 19 2003

Although the British Museum has refused to give up the Elgin marbles, a group led by former ABC boss David Hill is confident it can get them back to the Parthenon. Geraldine O’Brien reports.

This week, in a speech in Athens, the former ABC boss, David Hill, confidently predicted an end to the long-running and acrimonious dispute between Greece and Britain over the Parthenon marbles. (It is a point of honour in some circles to refer to them as the Parthenon, rather than Elgin, marbles, thereby honouring their origin rather than the British ambassador who somewhat dubiously “acquired” them in 1801.)
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More coverage of Neil MacGregor’s statement that the Parthenon Marbles will never return to Athens.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Monday February 24, 2003
Museum severs Marbles talks

LONDON (AP) – The British Museum’s Elgin Collection of sculptures from the Parthenon should never be returned to their original home in Greece, the museum’s director was quoted as saying yesterday.

“I do not believe there is a case for returning the marbles,” Museum Director Neil MacGregor said, according to the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. “They have a purpose here because this is where they can do most good… The British Museum can situate the achievements of these Greek sculptures in the context of the wider ancient world.”
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