BBC journalist Andrew Marr in this piece about his History of the World series highlights Athens as being one of the five most significant places in history. In addition to this, he makes the point, that despite, or perhaps because of, the current economic crisis, the time is right for the British to return the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece.

From:
BBC

12 October 2012 Last updated at 09:50
Five of history’s most important places

Trying to pick the most significant places in history is not an easy task when there are so many contenders. But History of the World presenter Andrew Marr has narrowed it down to five.

Africa’s Great Eastern Rift Valley

Running through Tanzania and Kenya, this is where the human story really begins, the earliest signs of Homo sapiens and our predecessor hominids, and it’s therefore where we should go back to when thinking about that great original migration out of Africa, and across the rest of the world, which happened 70,000 years ago.
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Once again, as so many times before, we see that the (admirable) aims to exhibit artefacts in the area where they were found, is acceptable for more recently discovered items, but when countries such as Greece request similar treatment it is described as cultural nationalism.

From:
BBC News

3 June 2011 Last updated at 13:24
Ancient gold jewellery returns to Rhayader Museum

Two rare troves of ancient gold are being displayed together for the first time in a new exhibition.

The treasures were found 55 years apart in fields in Rhayader, Powys, but have been kept at the British Museum and the National Museum of Wales.
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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 the canceled sale of the disputed Oba mask by Sotheby’s.

From:
Independent

Sotheby’s cancels sale of ‘looted’ Benin mask
Online protests halt auction of ‘plundered’ 16th-century artefact
By Rob Sharp, Arts Correspondent
Wednesday, 29 December 2010

Sotheby’s has scrapped its February sale of a controversial £4.5m mask believed to have been looted by British forces from 19th-century West Africa.

A number of private individuals contacted the auction house last week to complain about the sale of the 16th-century ivory mask, once thought to have belonged to an ancient Nigerian king. Local government officials in Nigeria have publicly condemned the sale and criticised the object’s current owners, the descendants of a former British government official involved in an 1897 British invasion of Benin, a city-state in what is now Nigeria.
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Following taking over as the Chairman of the BCRPM, Eddie O’Hara talks to the BBC about why he believes that the Parthenon Marbles should be returned to Athens. Eddie O’Hara is also the Honorary President of the Marbles Reunited campaign.

From:
BBC News

5 January 2011 Last updated at 13:59
Parthenon Marbles: Taking up the fight
By Trevor Timpson BBC News

Greek calls for the UK to return the Parthenon Marbles, nearly 200 years after they were removed from the Acropolis and shipped to London, have a new advocate leading the battle in the UK.

Former MP Eddie O’Hara, the new chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM), has told the BBC News website he is optimistic the campaign for the British Museum to return the sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, will succeed.
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More coverage of the decision by Yale University to return the disputed artefacts from Machu Picchu currently held by the Peabody Museum, to Peru.

From:
Yale Daily News

Yale to return Peruvian artifacts
Online Exclusive
By Drew Henderson
Sunday, November 21, 2010

UPDATED SUNDAY 11:59 p.m. Yale and Peru are formalizing an agreement to return Inca artifacts found by Hiram Bingham III 1898 to Peru, according to a statement released Sunday night by the Yale Office of Public Affairs and Communications.

The relics will all ultimately be returned to Peru, University President Richard Levin said in a Saturday interview. They will be returned over the next two years, with those most suitable for museum display being returned in time for the centenary of Bingham’s scientific discovery of Machu Picchu in July 2011, the statement said.
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Mary Beard, author of a book on the Parthenon has written a summary of the arguments surrounding the Elgin Marbles for the history section of the BBC’s website.

From:
BBC

Lord Elgin – Saviour or Vandal?
By Mary Beard
Last updated 2010-10-15

Much of the sculpture that once enhanced the Parthenon in Athens was brought to London by Lord Elgin 200 years ago. Was this the act of a saviour or a vandal? Mary Beard looks at both sides of a fierce argument.

Controversy

During the first decade of the 19th century the agents of Lord Thomas Elgin (British Ambassador to Constantinople 1799-1803) removed whole boatloads of ancient sculpture from Greece’s capital city of Athens. The pride of this collection was a large amount of fifth-century BC sculpture taken from the Parthenon, the temple to the goddess Athena, which stood on the Acropolis hill in the centre of the city.
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Following his earlier article, Tom Flynn was invited to contribute to a discussion about Radio 4’s collaboration with the British Museum – A history of the world in 100 objects. Unfortunately he was not able to attend, so the actual points he was making about the series were lost in an abridged quote which whole issue that he has with the series.

From:
ArtKnows

Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Banging the drum for the BBC

I’m running the risk of sounding like a stuck record, but that’s better than being accused of munching on sour grapes, which is what a guest on BBC Radio Four’s Making History programme has just done with regard to my criticism of the British Museum’s ‘History of the World in 100 Objects’ series.

Last Friday I received an email from the Beeb asking if I’d like to contribute to a discussion about whether the ‘100 Objects’ project had been a success. Sadly I had to decline as I had a teaching commitment that morning.
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Anyone who listens to Radio Four in the UK (& many who don’t) will have found it hard to avoid Neil MacGregor’s regular appearances on the radio to tell his version of the history of the world in one hundred objects. The story he tells though is often very much the story that the British Museum wants people to hear – in cases where there are questions over the ownership of the object in question, these are glossed over, to focus on other aspects that are deemed to be more interesting. Whilst many have eulogised about the power of this series along MacGregor’s excellent ability to create an image of the object through his narration, transcending the limitations of radio, others are not entirely convinced.

From:
Artknows

Tuesday, January 12, 2010
A History of the World in Looted Objects

The most remarkable thing about the British Museum’s forthcoming collaboration with the BBC — A History of the World in 100 Objects — is the almost total lack of critical response to the project from any quarter save for a few lonely voices of indignation echoing from the African subcontinent.

Instead we’ve witnessed a nauseating media hagiography of British Museum director Neil MacGregor in which he single-handedly educates the world from the comfort of his beautiful Bloomsbury office. We hear of “Saint Neil”, a “suave and smooth-talking Scot”, with a “lilting highland brogue”, a “skilled diplomat” with “infectious schoolboy enthusiasm”, a “natural storyteller” and “the most fortunate man alive.”
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Western Isles MP, Angus MacNeil, states that the talks he has been having with the British Museum regarding the Lewis Chessmen have been very positive – the implication of this (based on MacNeil’s previous comments about the chessmen) suggests that he now believes there is a reasonable chance that they may be returned to the Western Isles.

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 13:16 GMT, Tuesday, 15 June 2010 14:16 UK
Lewis chessmen could be returned

Talks to return at least some of the Lewis chessmen to the Western Isles have been described as “very positive”.

The area’s MP Angus MacNeil made the comment following a meeting with the deputy director of the British Museum, where 82 of the chessmen are housed.
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Museums (generally those wanting to avoid repatriating artefacts in their collections) regularly talk about giving high quality replicas to the original communities that artefacts came from.

This example uses holographic technology – but, as with every time this issue crops up, if it is good enough for the original owners, then why isn’t it good enough for the current owners to keep the digital replica & return the original?

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 08:03 GMT, Thursday, 6 May 2010 09:03 UK
Hologram artefacts go on display at Llangollen museum

A museum is displaying holographic images of artefacts made using a new imaging technique pioneered in Wales.

The holograms and 3D computer images will be shown at the Llangollen Museum in Denbighshire.
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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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