In recent years, since the Human Tissue Act came into force, New Zealand has had numerous success in the return of artefacts involving human remains from the UK. Now it looks as though the restitution tide is also turning in France, with the agreement to return some Maori heads.

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 00:21 GMT, Wednesday, 5 May 2010 01:21 UK
France votes to return Maori heads to New Zealand

The French parliament has voted to return the mummified heads of at least 15 Maori warriors to New Zealand.

The heads, taken by European explorers in the 18th and 19th centuries, are currently on display in several museums in France.
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A conference in London aims to represent London as a beacon of enlightenment in the world of restitution of cultural property. Many countries will be unconvinced by this argument however.

From:
The Times

May 4, 2010
London – a beacon of cultural resistution?

Plenty of people in Greece, Egypt, and Scotland might disagree but London, home of the Elgin marbles, the Rosetta Stone and the Lewis Chessmen, will today present itself as a beacon of enlightenment on the thorny subject of cultural restitution.

Delegates ranging from a lawyer with the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest to the Surveyor of The Queen’s Pictures and the Director General of ICCROM (the International Organisation for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage) in Rome are attending a conference at the National Gallery this afternoon billed as Restitution – Where Now?
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In recent years, as the buying power of wealthy Chinese has increased, many have been buying back their countries heritage from abroad as it comes up for sale at auctions. This is repatriation in a sense, although in many cases it is likely that it will be heading back to another private collection rather than enriching the public domain. There have also been similar moves to return artefacts on a more organised basis as well however.

From:
Economist

Jade for joy
How to satisfy the insatiable demand from mainland China
Apr 28th 2010 | From The Economist online

AS DEMAND for Chinese works of art continues to rise—with the top of the market nowhere in sight—the supply of top-quality pieces is becoming increasingly rare. Dealers and auction houses in all the major centres, from New York to Hong Kong, all repeat the same refrain: it is getting harder to find stock.

Persuading collectors to part with their treasures takes skill. After first identifying who owns what, dealers or auction houses must then convince these owners that the time is right to sell. Yet if the market is strong, why shouldn’t owners wait? Prices will only rise.
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More coverage of the conclusions of the conference in Egypt on the restitution of cultural property.

From:
Reuters

Egypt urges states to cooperate on artefact return
Wed Apr 7, 2010 5:49pm GMT

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt and other states which say artefacts have been illegally taken abroad should work together and list items they want returned from Western museums, Egypt’s top archaeologist said on Wednesday.

Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, was speaking to representatives from 21 countries, some like Greece and Syria, seeking the return of artefacts and others like the United States which have returned stolen antiquities.
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It is now nearly a year since the New Acropolis Museum opened in Athens. This museum has led to a big increase for the visitor figures to museums in Greece – hopefully once the newness wears off its popularity will continue.

From:
Agence France Presse

Greece museum visitors increase by 40 percent
(AFP) – Apr 12, 2010

ATHENS — The number of visitors to Greek museums jumped by 41 percent last year compared to 2008, whilst fewer made trips to its archaeological sites, the national statistics service said Monday.

The hike in visitor numbers to 2,813,548 was largely due to the opening of a new Acropolis museum in Athens that brought in over 800,000 people.
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Research by Art Historian Katherine Schwab, looks at whether the hairstyles of the Caryatids from the Erechtheion on the Acropolis in Athens could be recreated today. A DVD is now available that documents this project.

From:
PR Web

Documentary Now Available of Ancient Caryatid Hairstyles Being Brought to Life

A DVD is now available that documents the Caryatid Hairstyling Project, directed by Dr. Katherine Schwab, associate professor of art history at Fairfield University, that investigates whether elaborate female coiffures seen among the Erechtheion marble Caryatids, or maidens, at the Acropolis Museum in Athens could actually be replicated on women today. The 15-minute, fast-paced DVD follows six female students as they are transformed in appearance from modern 21st century women to elegant young women of ancient Greece.

Fairfield, Conn. (Vocus/PRWEB ) April 13, 2010 — A DVD is now available that documents the Caryatid Hairstyling Project, directed by Dr. Katherine Schwab, associate professor of art history at Fairfield University, that investigates whether elaborate female coiffures seen among the Erechtheion marble Caryatids, or maidens, at the Acropolis Museum in Athens could actually be replicated on women today. The 15-minute, fast-paced DVD follows six female students as their long hair is twisted and curled in intricate patterns (which in real time took hours) and records their reactions as they are transformed in appearance from modern 21st century women to elegant young women of ancient Greece. Produced by Christopher McGloin and Daniel Kole of the Media Center, with music arranged by Dr. Laura Nash, Program Director of Music, the DVD was funded by a grant from the University’s Faculty Research Committee and the Classical Studies Program. A webpage about the project includes a clip and online purchase of the DVD at www.fairfield.edu/caryatid.
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At the conclusion of the conference in Egypt on the restitution of looted artefacts, Zahi Hawass re-iterated a point that he has made in the past, that Museums that he has the power to make life very difficult for institutions that refuse to co-operate to try & resolve cases involving disputed artefacts.

From:
Bloomberg News

Egypt’s Hawass Sees ‘Miserable Life’ for Museums With Relics
By Daniel Williams

April 8 (Bloomberg) — Egypt’s chief antiquities administrator wrapped up a two-day conference among countries that want valuable relics held abroad returned by threatening to make “life miserable” for museums that keep them.

“We will decide together what to do,” said Zahi Hawass, who heads the Supreme Council of Antiquities, at the end of the Cairo conference that attracted 16 delegates and nine observers from abroad. “We will make life miserable for museums that refuse to repatriate.”
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Further coverage of the recent conference in Cairo on the restitution of looted antiquities.

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 23:31 GMT, Wednesday, 7 April 2010 00:31 UK
Egypt calls for antiquities unity

States which say artefacts have been stolen and displayed overseas should unite to recover their stolen heritage, Egypt’s top archaeologist has said.

Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), urged culture officials from around the world to draw up lists of missing items.
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The recent conference in Egypt, highlights yet again that pressure for the return of cultural artefacts is growing from many parts of the world.

From:
Daily Telegraph

British Museum under pressure to give up leading treasures
by Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Published: 7:39PM BST 07 Apr 2010

The British museum is to come under renewed pressure to give up leading treasures as 16 countries plan to sign a declaration that demands the return of artefacts sent overseas generations ago.

The demand, issued in Cairo at the end of a two-day conference, is addressed to every country that holds ancient relics.
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The Kingdom of Ife is a major exhibition currently on at the British Museum. The fact that the exhibition has sourced many of the artefacts from Nigeria though makes a mockery off the assertions by various museums in relation to Benin artefacts, that they can not honour return requests because the items would not be looked after well enough if they were sent back to Nigeria.

From:
Modern Ghana

ILE-IFE TRIUMPHS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON: WHO SAID NIGERIANS WERE INCAPABLE OF LOOKING AFTER THEIR CULTURAL ARTEFACTS?
By Kwame Opoku, Dr.
Feature Article | Sun, 18 Apr 2010

“A glorious display of Ife sculpture has arrived at the British Museum. Nobody — and I mean nobody — in Britain should miss it. Why? Because it changes our understanding of civilisation. Because it rewrites the story of art. Because it is a once-in-a-lifetime revolutionary event. If none of those is a big enough reason for you, then go along merely to enjoy some of the most graceful and lovely sculpture ever made. Trust me. You need to see this one. “
Waldemar Januszczak (1)

By all standards, the current exhibition in the British Museum entitled, Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa, is outstanding. (2) This has been acknowledged by most critics and commentators. The British press is full of praises and enthusiasm. An article by Jonathan Jones, entitled, “The divine art of the Kingdom of Benin” in The Guardian bears a headline declaring:
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An exhibition opens in Athens later this month, of three-dimensional photography of the sculptures from the Acropolis.

Exhibition in Athens 21-30 June 2010

The Cultural Organization of Athens Municipality invite you to inaugurated the exhibition entitled: “The magic of photography in three-dimensional sculptures of the Acropolis” of Kika Pardaki.

A year and a day after The opening of the new Acropolis Museum, which was built to house the statues, you are in London come to us with this report, through unique stereoscopic images of high quality and unique analysis for the use of special 3d glasses.

June 21 – June 30 2010, 20:00 at the Cultural Center, Akadimias 50, Hall “Iakovidis”

Open daily 10.00-20.00 & Sun 10.00-14.00

more information (in Greek) is available here.

A new Greek based campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles has been launched recently, called Bring them back“>Bring them Back.

From:
America Blog

Saturday, April 17, 2010
Bring back the Elgin Marbles
by John Aravosis (DC)

Back around 1800, when Greece was still suffering from 400 years of Turkish occupation, the British ambassador, Lord Elgin, got permission from the Turks to remove a good chunk of the Parthenon and bring it back to London, for display in the British Museum. Now that the Turks are gone, the Greeks would like their Parthenon back.

It’s an interesting issue. I can sympathize with the argument that you can’t ask that ever piece of antiquity from everywhere around the world be returned to its nation or origin, or you’d empty every museum in the world. Having said that, how does this story differ from the Nazi’s pilfering the Louvre? While I’m sympathetic to the notion that not every artifact should go home, the Parthenon is a big deal. And taking massive chunks of it during a foreign occupation is, well, tacky. Now that the Greeks have a new modern museum to house the “Elgin Marbles,” the British lose their number one argument – that the antiquities were better preserved in England than in Greece, where they could be better cared for. Not anymore.

Below is a cute video that demonstrates the problem. It’s tied to a Web site called “Bring them back.”