Australian soldiers removed a mosaic dating from AD 561 from a ruined church near Gaza in 1917. Many questions continue to be raised about whether Australia should return this artefact, that they still have in their possession.

From:
Sydney Morning Herald

Questions raised over ‘looted’ mosaic
Andrew Taylor
August 14, 2011

IN 1917, a Byzantine mosaic created during the reign of Emperor Justinian was removed by Australian troops from the ruins of a church near Gaza. The Australians knew they were plundering the priceless antiquity during World War I, two authors now claim.

In a new book, authors Paul Daley, a Sun-Herald columnist, and Michael Bowers, raise questions about Australia’s continued possession of the mosaic, which has been in the Australian War Memorial collection since 1941.
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This article is covers a number of interesting aspects. Gaza is in a situation where it has few museums & much of its heritage has been lost to collections in Israel, leading to the potential for many restitution requests in the future. More interesting though is the reasoning behind charging for admission – the British Museum always puts free entry as one of its top arguments in debates over the Elgin Marbles, but possibly Jawdat Khoudary is right – people don’t learn to value the heritage when they can see it for free. Certainly, many others have noted that free admission does tend to come at a price.

From:
Independent

The refuge that allows Gaza to reflect on past glories
By Donald Macintyre in Sudaniya, Gaza
Saturday, 9 August 2008

It may seem an odd dilemma in a territory where more than half of families live below an internationally defined poverty line, but Jawdat Khoudary is wondering whether there should be museum charges in Gaza.

As the owner and creator of the Strip’s first purpose-built archaeological museum, he has no doubt that the most prized patrons, the organised parties of schoolchildren already starting to flock to it, must come for free. And having sunk a small fortune – he won’t say how much – into building this elegant and air-conditioned space overlooking the Mediterranean just north of Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp, he certainly isn’t trying to make money from it. But the 48-year-old owner of one of Gaza’s biggest construction companies worries that if he doesn’t charge a couple of shekels for individual entry, Gazans may not realise the value of their heritage as much as he does.
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