Egypt’s successes in regaining antiquities from abroad have increased in recent years. There is still a long way to go however, before all the cases listed by Egypt are resolved (or for that matter even seriously discussed).

From:
BBC news

Page last updated at 05:47 GMT, Wednesday, 11 November 2009
The quest to regain Egypt’s antiquities

Later this month Egyptian archaeologists will travel to the Louvre Museum in Paris to collect five ancient fresco fragments stolen from a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in the 1980s, but there are many other “stolen” antiquities which they also want back, reports the BBC’s Yolande Knell in Cairo.

One of the first artefacts that visitors see on entering the pink neoclassical facade of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo is a fake.
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Zahi Hawass’s requests for the return of the bust of Nefertiti by Germany has generated large amounts of publicity, encouraging people to enter into discussion on why the artefacts is in Germany & whether it should be returned to Egypt.

From:
Christian Science Monitor

Germany: Time for Egypt’s Nefertiti bust to go home?
A German museum has a bust of the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti as its centerpiece. But should Germany and other Western nations keep or return Egypt’s cultural artifacts?
By Isabelle de Pommereau | Correspondent 11.02.09

BERLIN – Queen Nefertiti, who lived 3,500 years ago, was a wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. In 1912, German Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt found her on the banks of the River Nile – her bust that is, made of stucco and lime. Her new home became Berlin’s Neues Museum. But World War II annihilated the museum and the German Democratic Republic’s communist government let it decay.

This past October, seven decades later, Queen Nefertiti found her home again, as the centerpiece of a new, €200 million (about US$300 million) restored Neues Museum.
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Archaeology is a far more complex endeavour today than it ever was in the past due to the many parties trying to get hold of the artefacts before they are properly excavated & catalogued. Most countries have legal frameworks in place to prevent this, but direct action against who purchase illegally excavated pieces will also help to reduce the demand that creates these problems initially.

From:
The Examiner

Politics, nationalism or cultural guilt: What is an archeologist to do?
October 26, 12:42 AMArcheological Travel ExaminerGwynneth Anderson

It used to be so simple.

Come summer, head out into the field to dig. Perhaps even uncover a special something on the last day of excavation. Return home, write up the findings, apply for more grant awards. Next summer, repeat. No politics, cultural heritage issues or international arguments. Just simple digging, sifting and cataloguing followed by a cold beer once the day is over.

Some might say this was what started the problems in the first place.
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As well as reiterating his requests for the return of the Rosetta Stone following the successful retrieval of artefacts from the Louvre, Zahi Hawass is also repeating his previously unsuccessful attempts to persuade Germany to send the bust of Nefertiti back to Egypt.

From:
Modern Ghana

HAWASS REQUESTS RETURN OF NEFERTITI, EGYPTIAN QUEEN HELD IN BERLIN, GERMANY
By Kwame Opoku, Dr.
Tue, 20 Oct 2009

We may not all agree with Zahi Hawass in many aspects of restitution but we cannot deny that the energetic Egyptian cultural activist has a perfect sense of timing and is, in many ways, a very sophisticated strategist that many countries would be well-served to possess.

He first requested from the French Egyptian artefacts for which the French were most probably not ready to fight for. With this initial victory, he reminded the British about his well-known demand for the Rosetta Stone. Before the British could react, he demanded from the Germans the return of the bust of Nefertiti, the Egyptian Queen, who has been kept in German sojourn since 1913 when the notorious German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt surreptitiously brought the bust to Germany under dubious circumstances which have not yet been completely clarified. Borchardt’s own words indicated that he was fully aware that he was taking the sculpture away from Egypt without the consent of the Egyptians or the authorities responsible for dividing archaeological finds between Egypt and the European archaeologists involved in excavation. (1)
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Despite requests to provide any available evidence of the legitimacy of Nefertiti’s journey from Egypt to Berlin by Zahi Hawass, the newly re-opened Neues Museum hasn’t been forthcoming.

From:
Spiegel

10/20/2009
Berlin’s Nefertiti Trouble
Egyptian Official Calls Museum Behavior ‘Suspicious’

She’s been dead thousands of years but she’s still causing trouble. The bust of Queen Nefertiti has taken pride of place in Berlin’s New Museum, re-opened this weekend after 70 years. Now Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, says Berlin should give it back.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you really want to take Nefertiti away from her privileged new position in the newly re-opened New Museum in Berlin and bring her back to Cairo?
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Following their success in persuading the Louvre to return disputed artefacts, Egypt has once again set its sights on other artefacts of questionable provenance held in museums around the world.

From:
Agence France Presse

Egypt battling for more relics after Louvre success
By Ines Bel Aiba (AFP) – 2 days ago

CAIRO — Many relics from ancient Egypt remain in foreign museums and Cairo is struggling to persuade other countries to send them back, like France which agreed to return a set of 3,000-year-old wall painting fragments.

“It is the Egyptian people’s right to see works of art from their country’s civilisation,” said Abdel Halim Nureddin, a former head of Egypt’s antiquities authority.
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In a surprisingly rapid response to Egypt’s threats to withdraw cooperation with the Louvre, the French Museum has now agreed to the return of five fresco fragments, admitting that there are now serious doubts over their provenance.

From:
Bloomberg

France to Give Back to Egypt Five Artifacts Bought by Louvre
By Farah Nayeri

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) — France said it is returning to Egypt five fresco fragments acquired by the Louvre Museum, saying there were “serious doubts” about their provenance, and responding to Egyptian demands for their return.

The 35-member commission overseeing France’s national museum collections met today, and unanimously agreed that the fresco fragments from the wall of a prince’s tomb must be given back, the culture ministry said in an e-mailed release. Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand has decided to return them.
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The British Museum continues to hold onto the Parthenon Marbles, despite polls show that most people in Britain are in favour of their return. Whether or not Elgin had some form of permission at the time to remove the pieces, times have now changed & most would argue that it is ethically & morally right that the artefacts are returned.

From:
New West Network

Should Nefertiti and the Elgin Marbles Go Home?
By Nick Gier, New West Unfiltered 7-28-09

Once again the Greek government has demanded that the Parthenon Marbles, better known in imperialist circles as the Elgin Marbles, be returned from the British Museum to the Greek people. The stunning new Acropolis Museum has just opened, and there is a gallery where a plaster copy of half the famous frieze waits to be replaced with the original.

Noting that the Greeks had previously been amenable to a generous loan policy, the British journal The Economist states that “the Greek government risks driving museums everywhere into clinging to their possessions for fear of losing them. If the aim is for the greatest number of people to see the greatest number of treasures, a better way must be found.”
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More coverage of the peculiar ending to the current chapter of the row over the disputed Chinese artefacts auctioned from the collection of Yves Saint Lauren. Whether his actions were right or wrong, they have had great success in highlighting the problems that arise when items such as this are sold whilst their ownership is disputed.

From:
The Globe & Mail (Canada)

Bidder butts heads with Christie’s over looted art
MARK MACKINNON
Sources: BBC, CNN, Washington Times, McClatchy
March 3, 2009

BEIJING — For 150 years, the bronze heads of the rabbit and rat have passed from one rich Western owner to the next, symbols of what many Chinese consider a time of national humiliation.

Where they end up next remains in doubt after a Chinese collector says he won a controversial auction for the two 18th-century artworks last week in Paris, but refuses to pay the price, which is over $50-million.
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A summary of some of the more well known cases of looted artefacts around the world, prompted by the recent chain of events following the auctioning of artefacts belonging to the late Yves Saint Lauren.

From:
Reuters

FACTBOX: Disputed artifacts around the world
Mon Mar 2, 2009 2:38pm GMT

(Reuters) – A Chinese art collector identified himself on Monday as the winning bidder in last week’s Paris auction for two sculptures looted from Beijing in the 1800s but said that, as a patriot, he had no intention of paying.

The collector said the relics should not have been put up for sale as they had been stolen from Beijing’s Summer Palace, which was razed in 1860 by French and British forces.
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New research suggests that the archaeologists who took the bust of Nefertiti from Egypt deliberately misled officials to allow them to do so – suggesting that they felt that they would have been stopped had they told the truth at that stage. This can only add weight to Egypt’s argument for the return of the sculpture.

From:
The National (Abu Dhabi)

Germans ‘cheated’ to get Nefertiti
David Crossland, Foreign Correspondent
Last Updated: February 13. 2009 1:12AM UAE / February 12. 2009 9:12PM GMT

The bust of ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertiti has been one of Germany’s most treasured cultural possessions since German archaeologists discovered the exquisitely crafted 3,350-year-old artwork in the sands of Egypt almost a century ago.

Renowned for its timeless beauty, the sculpture attracts more than half a million visitors a year to the Berlin museum where it is on display, and it has long been a source of friction between Germany and Egypt, which has been demanding its return for decades.
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Another review of Sharon Waxman’s new book about the looted ancient treasures from around the world that fill many of the great museums of the West.

From:
The Star (Toronto)

That which was stolen shall be returned
The complex story of the fate of ancient artifacts in foreign museums is packed with smugglers, intrigue and Imperialism
Feb 08, 2009 04:30 AM
Hans Werner

Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World
by Sharon Waxman
Times Books, 414 pages, $33

If you’ve ever stood there awestruck in front of Nefertiti in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum (London), or the Denderah Zodiac ceiling in the Louvre (Paris), you may get a sinking feeling to imagine them gone, vanished or replaced with replicas. That goal of some powerful people is the subject of Loot: The Battle of the Stolen Treasures of the Art World by Sharon Waxman, a former culture correspondent for The Washington Post and The New York Times. Also the author of Rebels on the Backlot, about the new Hollywood, Waxman presents a lucid and intelligent investigative report into the dilemma of what the great museums of the world are to do in the face of demands to return signature artifacts to the countries of origin.
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