A few days ago, various people in Australia were claiming that the Flinders Map was Australia’s equivalent of the Elgin Marbles. This was a fairly spurious comparison to make, as there is no real connection between the two cases, which involve entirely dissimilar circumstances. Unsurprisingly, Britain has taken the point of view that the map is legally owned by the British Hydrographic Office.

From:
The Australian

UK claims first map to identify ‘Australia’ made by Matthew Flinders is theirs
From: AAP
January 26, 2011 4:03AM

AUSTRALIANS may claim it to be the nation’s “birth certificate” but that does not mean English authorities are going to be handing it over easily.

A campaign has been launched to take ownership of the first map to use the name “Australia”, which is currently located in the archives of the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) in Taunton, Somerset.
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More coverage of Germany’s refusal to return the Bust of Nefertiti to Egypt.

From:
Press TV

Germany not to return Nefertiti bust
Wed Jan 26, 2011 5:37PM

Germany has once again refused to return the bust of Queen Nefertiti, an ancient Egyptian sculpture housed at the Neues Museum in the city of Berlin.

Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) had sent a request to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, asking for the 3,400-year-old piece which attracts more than one million visitors every year.
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More coverage of Yale University’s decision to return artefacts to Peru.

From:
Economist

Homeward bound
An agreement to return Inca treasures
Peru’s archaeological heritage
Nov 25th 2010 | Lima | from PRINT EDITION

A CENTURY ago Hiram Bingham, an American explorer backed by Yale University, hacked his way across jungle-clad mountains and came across the ruins of the fabled Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, hitherto known only to local farmers. He later returned to excavate the site. He packed up some 46,000 exhibits, ranging from ceramics to metalwork and human bones, and shipped them back to Yale for analysis and display. Their export had the permission of Peru’s president of the day, but was supposed to be temporary. Instead the exhibits have remained at Yale ever since, something which has recently irritated Peruvians.

Alan García, Peru’s president since 2006, has continued a campaign launched by his predecessor, Alejandro Toledo, to persuade the university to return the pieces. With an eye to achieving this in time for the centenary next July of Bingham’s first expedition, Mr García recently led a protest march in Lima, Peru’s capital, and published a letter he sent to Barack Obama asking him to intercede in the case.
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In a move that will surprise few people, Germany has once again rebuffed requests for the return of the Bust of Nefertiti from Berlin’s Neues Museum.

From:
Yahoo News

Germany Denies Egypt’s Request for the Return of 3,300-Year Old Bust of Queen Nefertiti
Vanessa Evans Vanessa Evans – Tue Jan 25, 5:26 pm ET

The latest round in the debate between Egypt and Germany over the rightful ownership of one of Egypt’s most prized antiquities hit another snag on Monday when Germany again refused to turn a bust of Nefertiti over into Egyptian hands. Currently housed in Berlin’s Neues Museum, where it has been for decades, the 3,300-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti is at the top of a list of artifacts that Egypt would like returned to their home soil.

Germany, for its part, is maintaining it acquired the bust through legal channels and it belongs to them. It further maintains the artifact is too fragile to travel, so even a temporary loan back to Egypt would not be possible.
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This case is not particularly unique – but once again, it highlights the importance that Britain sees in retaining its own artworks – whilst regularly decrying other countries trying to retrieve their artworks that have been acquired in the past by Britain. Either keeping it local is good, or not – playing it this way only when it suits, shows the double standards applied to the restitution arguments.

From:
BBC News

20 January 2011 Last updated at 10:59
Freed slave portrait saved from export

The first British portrait of a freed slave, which faced being lost to the nation, will remain in the UK for the next five years.

William Hoare’s painting of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, also known as Job ben Solomon, was purchased by the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) in 2009.
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A campaign in Australia is calling for Britain to relinquish ownership of the first map to use the term Australia. The case is being styled as similar to that of the Parthenon Marbles, but in reality, it is a very different proposition. Whatever the merits of this particular case & its connection to Australia’s history, it was never owned by Australia – it was never removed from the country in dubious circumstances. Comparing such arguments, merely weakens the argument for well grounded cases such as that of the Parthenon Marbles, by comparing them to cases where the justification for restitution is far less strong.

From:
The Age (Melbourne)

Call to hand over our ‘birth certificate’
Melissa Jenkins
January 25, 2011
AAP

It’s our “birth certificate” and the Brits should hand it over.

So goes the cry on the eve of Australia Day as a campaign is launched to bring home the first map to use the name “Australia”.
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Once again, Egypt has reiterated its request for the return of the Nefertiti bust, currently housed in Berlin’s Neues Museum.

From:
Bloomberg

Egypt Demands Return of Nefertiti Bust From Germany
By Mahmoud Kassem – Jan 24, 2011 11:40 AM GMT

Egypt has officially asked that Germany hand over a 3,400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti from Berlin’s Neues Museum as part of the North African country’s efforts to return disputed artifacts.

Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, sent a letter requesting the return of the statue to Herman Parzinger, president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin, the Egyptian Culture Ministry said in an e-mailed statement.
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A painting by Hans Baldung Grien, the belonged to the German Gutmann family & was taken by the Nazis, has been returned to the descendants of its original owners, once the museum that held it was alerted to the details of the provenance of the painting.

From:
Star Ledger (New Jersey)

Azadeh Ardakani
Rutgers University art museum returns rare painting to family of Holocaust victims
Published: Wednesday, January 19, 2011, 8:45 AM
By Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger

NEW BRUNSWICK — The 16th Century painting by German artist Hans Baldung Grien has traveled thousands of miles and passed through many owners — some evil, some desperate to bargain for their lives — before returning to the family who owned it 70 years ago.

It was once a part of the renowned collection of Friedrich (Fritz) and Louise Gutmann, German bankers who displayed works by Bosch, Botticelli, Renoir and Degas at their Dutch estate.
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The New Acropolis Museum is now going to be open until 10pm every Friday.

From:
Athens News Agency

01/19/2011
Acropolis Museum open until 10 p.m. on Fridays

(ANA-MPA) — Starting on Jan. 28 this year, the New Acropolis Museum will henceforth stay open until 10 p.m. on Friday evenings so that visitors can tour the exhibits while also viewing the floodlit Acropolis — opposite the museum — at night.

At the same time, the museum will also begin a programme for the conservation and restoration of the Caryatid sculptures – structural columns holding up the temple’s porch that were carved to look like young women – from the Erechtheum.
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More coverage of the Cypriot icon returned by Boy George after he discovered that it had been looted.

From:
Guardian

Boy George returns lost icon to Cyprus church
Singer had no idea the religious artefact hanging above his fireplace was looted from a Cypriot church in 1974
Sean Michaels
Thursday 20 January 2011 12.32 GMT

Boy George has returned a stolen Cypriot artefact that had been missing for almost 40 years. The singer said he was unaware that an icon of Jesus Christ which had hung in his living room for decades was looted from a church in Nicosia. Church officials noticed the portrait during a TV interview with Boy George, where it appeared in the background.

The Culture Club singer bought the artefact “with good faith” from a London art dealer in 1985. “[I] have looked after the icon for 26 years,” he told BBC News. “[I’m] happy it is going back to its original rightful home.”
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There is an e-book available free of charge from the Latsis Foundation to read online, about the artefacts in the Acropolis Museum.

See the book here.

The singer Boy George has returned an icon that was looted from a Cypriot church. He was not aware that the icon was looted until he was contacted by a Cypriot bishop who saw it in the background during an interview with the singer. The singer decided to return the icon once he found out, as he felt that it was the right thing to do.

Interestingly, he suggested that others should follow his lead and do the right thing – with the comment on twitter:

The Elgin Marbles next? http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/pm/2011/01/bishop_posyrios_and_an_icon.shtml

@BoyGeorge
Tue 18 Jan 19:41

You can see a picture of the bishop with the icon here.

From:
BBC News

19 January 2011 Last updated at 17:32
Boy George returns Christ icon to Cyprus church

Musician Boy George has agreed to return to the Church of Cyprus an icon of Christ that came into his possession 11 years after the Turkish invasion.

The former Culture Club singer bought the piece from a London art dealer in 1985 without knowing its origin.
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