Anthony Snodgrass, Professor Emeritus of Classical Archaeology at the University of Cambridge & chairman of the BCRPM is to give a lecture in Washington on the Elgin Marbles, entitled “The Parthenon Divided”.

From:
Library of Congress News

Anthony Snodgrass To Discuss the Parthenon (“Elgin”) Marbles on March 23
Title of His Talk Is “The Parthenon Divided”

Anthony Snodgrass, chairman of the British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles and Laurence Professor Emeritus of Classical Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, will present a lecture titled “The Parthenon Divided” at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 23, in the Montpelier Room, sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C.

Snodgrass has given lectures throughout Europe and the United States regarding the case both for and against the restitution of the Parthenon Marbles to the Republic of Greece.
Read the rest of this entry »

This may well be regarded as quite a contentious issue by some supporters of the restitution of the Elgin Marbles, but does Turkey have as much right to request the return of cultural treasures that they have lost?
Key differences between the cases are that generally speaking, while artefacts have been taken from Turkey & placed in foreign museums, these artefacts were not created by the Turks initially their current sense of responsibility for the artefacts remaining in their country is to be commended though.
The other difference is the circumstances under which the items were removed from Turkey, where they were taken from Turkey under the control of the Turks, rather than from a country that was under foreign occupation.

From:
Turkish Daily News

People want stolen treasures returned:
Gila Benmayor
Saturday, February 26, 2005

I assume everybody knows that Turkey is full of historic and cultural treasures.

Unfortunately, much of it has been stolen and taken overseas.

Just think about the Bergama Museum in Berlin and the Treasure of Troy at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.
Read the rest of this entry »

Yet again, the British Museum attempts to justify & post rationalise their continued retention of cultural treasures from around the world that were acquired in situations of dubious legality. This time they have invented a new phrase Cultural Diplomacy to explain their current actions.
Unfortunately the director of one of the Kenyan Museums is agreeing with him on this one.
Should retention of artefacts be justified by the level of care that can be provided for them? If this is the case, if somewhere else can care for it better than the British Museum, then is the British Museum then going to hand the artefacts over? Who decided this standard of care amongst museums? It certainly was not the result of any reasoned debate involving all the interested parties. Furthermore, is the care that could be provided by many African countries today any worse than the standard that was available at the British Museum at the time that the Artefacts were originally taken (Remember that until not that in Victorian times London was possibly the most polluted city in the world.

From:
The Post (Lusaka, Zambia)

British Museum Would Rather Export Cultural Diplomacy Than Return Artefacts – Macgregor
The Post (Lusaka)

February 25, 2005
Edem Djokotoe
London
THE British Museum would rather export cultural diplomacy than return artefacts taken from countries around the world, its director, Neil Macgregor, has said.

Macgregor was speaking in an interview at the British Museum ahead of a media briefing on its Africa programme, which is aimed at stimulating debate about African issues across the UK.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation has recently completed its 13th session in Paris, where amongst other things they took note of continuing co-operation between the British Museum & Greek Museums over the return of the Parthenon Marbles – I’m not at all sure what this co-operation is referring to though, & they don’t seem to have any full transcripts of the meeting available at the moment.

From:
artdaily.com

Saturday, February 12, 2005
Promoting the Return of Cultural Property
PARIS, FRANCE.- The Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation has expressed its concern over the continued pillaging of cultural objects in Iraq and urged UNESCO and its partners, ICOM, INTERPOL and the Italian Caribinieri, to continue their efforts to stem the illicit trafficking of Iraqi cultural heritage. The Committee, comprising 22 Member States, is responsible for seeking ways and means of facilitating bilateral negotiations for the restitution or return of cultural property to its countries of origin, and promoting such restitution.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ethiopia, & particularly the Ethiopian church have been lobbying for the return of various relics looted from their country for some time now & appear to be having a certain amount of success.

From:
The Scotsman

Thursday 10th February 2005

British Plunder Returned to Ethiopia

Two sacred paintings have been returned to Ethiopia 137 years after they were ripped out of a holy book by invading British troops.

The paintings were among Ethiopian treasures looted by British troops and later locked up in British museums, royal palaces and private collections.

The paintings were handed to the Ethiopian embassy in London this week by a British lawyer who inherited them from his great uncle, an embassy official said
Read the rest of this entry »

A woman in Sweden read about the Swedish committee for the return of the Parthenon Marbles & has as a result decided to return a fragment taken from the Acropolis that she inherited from her father.

From:
Kathimerini

Wednesday February 9, 2005
Swedes to return bit of history

STOCKHOLM (AP) – A marble fragment removed over 100 years ago from an ancient temple in Athens will be donated to the new Acropolis museum under the citadel, a spokeswoman for a Swedish museum said yesterday.

The marble piece from the Erechtheion has been kept at the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, where it was sent for analysis and examination last year.
Read the rest of this entry »

Greece is a country with an incredibly rich archaeological heritage. The downside of this is that strong measures need to be taken to preserve the remaining in-situ archaeological remains. Nowhere is this more important than on underwater sites, that are a lot harder to police than those on land.

From:
Kathimerini

04-02-2005
Concern over fate of antiquities lying on the seabed
New bill does little to dispel experts’ looting fears
Experts know of more than 1,000 wrecks in Greek waters, all vulnerable to looting by antiquities thieves.
By Iota Sykka – Kathimerini

When a few months ago a leading light in the field of underwater exploration, Robert Ballard, visited Athens, he warned Greeks to guard their wrecks as if he knew what was coming.

A bill just released by the Merchant Marine Ministry on underwater diving appears to have raised the more general issue of protecting antiquities in Greek waters.
Read the rest of this entry »

Across Europe, governments are cutting the budgets of Museums. Being entirely funded from government money or donations means that the British Museum is hit harder by this than many other institutions are.
However, it also open up the argument that the British Museum could potentially be better off it they returned the Parthenon Marbles. The Greek government has specifically offered in the past the possibility of regular temporary exhibitions at the British Museum if the Marbles were returned. These would include the latest finds from archaeological excavations, many of which have never been on public display before. The British Museum although it is generally free, does charge for temporary exhibitions, & in many ways these are what really draws in the visitors (people who have already been to the museum may well come again for a specific exhibition – to see something that was not there the last time they visited).

From:
Bloomberg.com

European Museums Go Corporate as Governments Cap Handouts
Feb. 2 (Bloomberg)

Every year, 1.5 million people marvel at Sandro Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” as they snake through room after Renaissance room of Florence’s Uffizi Gallery.

That flow nearly stopped for good as the Italian government, in a budget-cutting drive, threatened last summer to slash the Culture Ministry’s operating costs by a quarter. The reaction was instant, and in house.

“You’re looking at a gradual shutdown of museums and archaeological sites,” Culture Minister Giuliano Urbani warned in the daily Corriere della Sera. “At this rate, we’ll have to consider closing part or all of the Uffizi.”
Read the rest of this entry »