The argument is often put forward that artefacts are safer in the British Museum than they would be in their countries of origin. This article looks at it from a different perspective though, where the larger a museum is, the more appeal it might have to terrorists as a relatively easy target – destroying parts of a culture. So are smaller regional museums or those for specific collections safer than the universal museum in today’s world?

From:
The Boston Globe

MICHAEL O’HARE
Are museums safe from terrorism?
By Michael O’Hare | August 27, 2005
THE MUSEUM of Fine Arts is planning a $100 million expansion. Exciting, but all in all, maybe not such a good idea to further concentrate cultural treasures in one place.

Disagreeable as it is, let’s try to think like a terrorist, especially an Islamic terrorist, flying over Boston in a stolen corporate jet with a load of fuel, who wants to deliver it where it will create the most damage to the evil society below it.
Read the rest of this entry »

The main point of interest in this story is the language used in the official explanation given for the export ban on the coin: […]The committee ruled the coin was so closely connected to England’s history and national life that losing it would be a misfortune, that it was of outstanding aesthetic importance[…] Surely points that could also be applied equally or more to the Elgin Marbles. It seems that when it is about our own heritage though the situation is different obviously.

From:
Bedford Today

Export ban on £230,000 coin
10 August 2005

A gold coin found in Biggleswade and sold for a record price has had a temporary export ban placed on it.
Culture Minister David Lammy has placed the ban on taking the coin out of the country following a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art.
Read the rest of this entry »

There are Many African items in the British Museum’s collection over which the ownership is disputed. A few of these artefacts are now being lent to a temporary exhibition that is going on display in Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda, giving a chance for these the people of these countries to see their own Heritage (albeit only for a short period of time).

From:
The East African

UK to lend stolen artefacts to EA for six months
BY JOHN KARIUKI
The EastAfrican

The British National Museum has agreed to return on a six-month loan hundreds of artefacts taken away from the three East African countries during the colonial period.

The collection of historical and cultural material will be used for an exhibition based on the history of East Africa which will be held in April next year at the old Nairobi PC’s office.
Read the rest of this entry »

The argument is often put forward by the museums of the west, that they are keeping artefacts safer than they would have been in their original locations. Italy’s moves to guard against terror attacks in their monuments or museums make you wonder how much safer the artefacts really are over here after all. Although institutions such as the British Museum ask people to leave large bags in the cloakroom, there is no control over who is wandering in & out of the building & what they are bringing in with them.

From:
The Guardian

Italy moves to protect its heritage from terror
Colosseum to be cordoned off as threat of attack forces authorities to increase security around monuments and galleries
Barbara McMahon in Rome
Saturday August 20, 2005
The Guardian

The Colosseum in Rome is to be cordoned off to the public behind metal barriers as Italy moves to protect its cultural heritage from the threat of terrorism.

Heightened security at the 2,000-year-old amphitheatre is among a number of preventive measures being implemented across the country after last month’s terror attacks in London.
Read the rest of this entry »

Many of the greatest ethnographic collections in museums in Europe were created as a consequence of the empire building by various countries at that time. In many ways, the British Museum & the Louvre could be seen as archetypal examples of this trend.
Collectors traveled through countries such as Egypt & India taking whatever artefacts they could fins back with them. A new book by Maya Jasanoff looks at how the way in which these collectors operated could often be seen as a metaphor for the formation of the empire itself.

From:
The Guardian

The collectors
Maya Jasanoff has discovered an entirely new dimension to our understanding of Britain’s imperial expansion in her study of European collectors, Edge of Empire, says Richard Gott
Saturday August 20, 2005
The Guardian

Edge of Empire: Conquest and Collecting on the Eastern Frontiers of the British Empire, 1750-1850
by Maya Jasanoff
416pp, Fourth Estate, £25

Each generation concerned with the history of the British empire seeks to reassess it according to the demands of changing attitudes and circumstances. Today’s emphasis on otherness and fusion, on border-crossing and multiculturalism, has favoured a revisionist and more benign recollection of the past, particularly noticeable in studies of 18th-century India. The stark vision in the historical kaleidoscope of imperial red banners confronted in battle by the green flags of Islam has given way to a more nuanced shade of grey.
Read the rest of this entry »

The trial of Marion True has brought the acquisitions by museums under public scrutiny. What we really need though, is a more organised way of tracing which artworks are of dubious provenance before they are acquired, so that they don’t even enter museums in the first place. High profile prosecutions against individual institutions might create attention, but they are of limited use at actually solving the problem.

From:
The New Statesman

To catch a thief
Monday 15th August 2005
Observations on art treasures by Phil Chamberlain

When it comes to the search for ancient antiquities, forget Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. Think instead about the Italian tombaroli. These poor labourers earn pennies raiding tombs for relics that are eventually sold overseas to museums and private collectors for thousands of pounds. Almost every country with ancient artefacts has its own tombaroli, stripping sites of treasure to feed a ready market in the west.
Read the rest of this entry »

Visitor figures for many monuments in Greece have risen for a number of reasons:
Currently the country is seen as a safer (with regard to terrorists) destination than Turkey, Italy or Spain (Its worth noting that British Museum visitor figures have dropped by 30% since the London bombings).
Greece & its monuments have had a lot of recent publicity from the Olympics held in Athens last summer.
Also, as a result of the Olympics, many monuments are now more accessible to the disabled than they ever were previously.

From:
Kathimerini English Edition

Saturday August 13, 2005
Tourist numbers leap up
Expected double-digit rise confirms medium-term Olympics benefit
ANA

More tourists than ever are trekking up the Acropolis this year. After years of declining tourism revenues, Greece is bouncing back after the success of last year’s Olympics and more spending on advertising campaigns. The Games have also left a good legacy of better infrastructure, especially in Athens. The Acropolis is now accessible to the disabled via a small lift. However, Greece still suffers from many cases of substandard services in the tourism sector, which could leave visitors unhappy.
Read the rest of this entry »

In this article which mainly focuses on African & Asian exhibits in Britain’s museums, a number of interesting points are made about how museums need to evolve to deal with changing times & a changing audience. In particular Jack Lohman of the Museum of London says: “Museums that present the culture of the world need to acknowledge the story by which those collections were acquired”.

From:
New York Times

London Sees Political Force in Global Art
By ALAN RIDING
Published: August 4, 2005

PARIS, Aug. 3 – It was purely coincidental, but between the London bombings of July 7 and the failed bombings of July 21, a Commission on African and Asian Heritage appointed by London’s mayor issued its first report, “Delivering Shared Heritage,” which recommended ways of recognizing and integrating the contribution of black and Asian minorities to the life, culture and history of the city.
Read the rest of this entry »

A recently released survey of visitors to Greek Archaeological sites give some interesting statistics. When asked whether they thought that artefacts held in foreign museums should be returned to Greece, 96.1% of Greeks felt that they should, with 84.7% of foreign visitors agreeing with this.

From:
Athens News Agency

Thursday 4, August 2005
Foreigners feel safe visiting Greek museums and ancient sights, survey shows

The vast majority – 92.5 per cent – of foreigners feel absolutely safe when visiting Greece’s archaeological sites and museums, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

The survey was carried out using a sample of 2,718 Greeks and foreigners above 18 at the Athens Acropolis and the National Archaeological Museum from June 26 until July 3. It was conducted by Greek Public Opinion on behalf of the Panhellenic Federation of Culture Ministry Associations.
Read the rest of this entry »

This case has appeared with very little warning (it was not previously a case that got much publicity compared to many other restitution cases) but looks like it will now be getting a lot more publicity. A group of Lawyers in Turkey are filing a lawsuit against the British Museum in the European Court of Human Rights. The reason for the suit is that they want the Halikarnassos Mausoleum to be returned to Turkey by the Museum.

From:
Zaman (Turkey)

Turkish Lawyers File Suit Against British Museum Halikarnassos Mausoleum
By Erkan Acar
Published: Tuesday August 02, 2005

A campaign has been launched for the restitution of Turkey over the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos that was transported from Bodrum in southern Turkey to the British Museum 150 years ago.

A documentary was prepared and 30,000 signatures were collected within the framework of the campaign. A group of lawyers is now preparing to file a lawsuit against the British Museum in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Nearly 30 lawyers from Istanbul and Izmir together with the Bodrum Municipality along with various non-government organizations launched a campaign for the restitution of the Mausoleum transported to London in 1846. Read the rest of this entry »

Finally statements are emerging from the British Government about the long overdue changes to the law to allow artefacts looted by the Nazis to be de-accessioned from Britain’s museums & returned to their rightful owners. Clearly this planned change in the law is as a direct follow up to the recent court case that ruled that it was not possible to over rule the British Museum Act without a change in the law.
While this is all very positive, I still can not understand the logic behind a law that will treat events that occurred during one specific period in history differently from those that happened during any other – cases end up being judged not on their validity, but on when they occurred. To me (while I can see why the museum’s are pushing for the change to take this form) this is complete nonsense – If two people had items stolen, but for one the items were stolen by someone French & for the other they were stolen by an Italian (assuming all other circumstances were the same) then would one case be more deserving than the other?

From:
BBC News

Last Updated: Friday, 29 July 2005, 11:28 GMT 12:28 UK
New look at Nazi looted art law
Four Old Master drawings looted by the Nazis could be returned to their original owner by the British Museum under proposed changes to legislation.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is reviewing the law to make such returns legal.

Consultations on the legislation – which will be limited to items taken between 1933 to 1945 – will begin soon.
Read the rest of this entry »

An article in Cairo Magazine about the current request made by Egypt for the return of various artefacts adds a few points not covered by the previous articles.
Firstly, they look at the history of previous requests by Hawass for the return of artefacts. Secondly, the article looks at the way in which countries can work with UNESCO to resolve disputes & at what powers the organisation actually has in such cases.

From:
Cairo Magazine

Thursday July 28, 2005
Stolen treasures
Zahi Hawass wants the Rosetta Stone back—among other things
By Henry Huttinger

Egypt is once again calling for the return of several celebrated antiquities currently on display in museums across Europe and America, including the Rosetta stone, the famous granite slab that was crucial in deciphering hieroglyphics.

The campaign to recuperate priceless artifacts taken by colonial powers is not new. But in recent weeks Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the public face of archaeology in Egypt, has grown more strident in his demands in a campaign that coincides with a world tour of Egyptology’s favorite son, King Tutankhamun. Hawass has even threatened to shut down British and Belgian archaeological digs in Egypt if the artifacts are not returned.
Read the rest of this entry »