A few weeks ago, France announced that they would return various Māori heads taken from New Zealand. This article looks at some of the other well-known disputes over artefacts.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Famous disputes over ownership of ancient artefacts
10:30AM BST 09 May 2011

Elgin Marbles

France has agreed to return more than one dozen Maori heads taken from new Zealand more than a century ago. Here are some other ongoing disputes between nations over prized ancient artefacts:

Probably the most famous, and one of the longest running, disputes over ownership of ancient artefacts is the battle between Britain and Greece over the Elgin Marbles.
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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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Some Maori Heads held by the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow have been returned after 150 years.

From:
The Scotsman

Glasgow museum returns Maori heads after 150 years
Published Date: 06 December 2009
By Oliver Tree

SEVERED human heads kept at a Scottish museum have been returned to their native New Zealand after nearly 150 years in the archives.

Taken from the Maori tribesmen and transported to Scotland in the 19th century, the heads have been housed at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow.
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Following the high profile successes of Australian Aboriginal groups in securing the repatriation of human remains from Britain’s museums, New Zealand’s Maori’s are also achieving similar results.

From:
Agence France Presse

Museum returns Maori bones to N.Zealand
(AFP) – Nov 16, 2009

LONDON — A British museum handed back a set of Maori skeletal remains to indigenous leaders from New Zealand on Monday, 80 years after they were discovered in storage there, officials said.

The remains are thought to have been traded but then forgotten, and to be from Ahuahu or Great Mercury Island, off the coast of New Zealand’s North Island.
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Another success for New Zealand in securing the return of Maoris artefacts that contain human remains. Museums are willing to acknowledge now that it is right for them to return artefacts that involve human remains – with other cases though, they are still very reluctant to step forward.

From:
New Zealand Herald

British to hand back Maori remains
4:00AM Friday Nov 14, 2008

A British museum will return a collection of Maori remains to New Zealand this month.

Manchester Museum said yesterday it would hand over the remains in its collection, including a Maori skull and a fish hook made from human bone, to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
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