71 native American masks are being auctioned, despite protests from the tribes that they belonged to. There are laws in place in many countries now that cover return of human remains & there are also laws in the US relating to Native American artefacts. However, these items are not covered by any of these & as such the auction is legal. One has to ask the question though of whether it is Moral though? These items could not be taken now from native tribes in the same way as happened originally.

From:
Indian Country Today Media Network

71 Hopi and Zuni Masks to be Auctioned in Paris
ICTMN Staff
March 07, 2013

On April 12, a collection of 71 Hopi and Zuni masks will be auctioned by Neret-Minet at the Druout Richelieu gallery and auction house in Paris, France. The array of katsinam masks was amassed by a collector over the course of 30 years, and date to the late 19th and early 20th century, according to the description at Druout.com (a translated version can be found at ArtDaily.org).

“The idea that a people would dedicate so much time and energy to the rise of celestial bodies fascinated our collector,” reads the auction’s description. “In his collection, the CROW MOTHER mask, Angwusnasomtaqa in the Hopi language, held pride of place, and he had to wait over 20 years to attend the Powamu rituals in early February, the only time the mother of all the Katsinam appears in the village. By his own admission, you have to see the masks in dances to fully appreciate them.”
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More coverage of Turkey’s ongoing attempts to secure the restitution of disputed artefacts – many of which are housed in Paris’s Louvre museum.

From:
Le Monde (via Worldcrunch)

Published on 2013-02-18 15:56:34
Turkey vs. The Louvre: Ankara Renews Its Quest To Recover Antiquities
By Guillaume Perrier
LE MONDE/Worldcrunch

ISTANBUL – The treasure of Troy is back. The collection of golden jewelry from the ancient city, which had been stolen during the 19th century, was handed back to Turkey by the University of Pennsylvania last September.

The precious jewelry – known as the “Troy gold” – had been looted after the first excavations of Troy by a German archeologist in the 1870s. No one knows if Helen of Troy actually wore the jewels, but Turkey says it belongs to them. “It is only right that they be returned to where they were taken from,” declared Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertugrul Gunay.
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In the space of a few years, return of artefacts looted by the Nazis has become almost the accepted norm, although it in itself is very much a special case offered favourable terms compared to almost any other disputed artefacts.

While the return of such disputed items is great, I do not see how an automatic dispensation should be applied to a single special case, while all others (no matter how strong their case) are treated as second class citizens on the journey to restitution.

From:
BBC News

15 February 2013 Last updated at 10:56
Louvre museum returns Nazi-looted artwork

Seven paintings taken from their Jewish owners in the 1930s are being returned to their surviving relatives as part of an ongoing French effort to give back looted, stolen or appropriated art.

The works include four paintings that currently hang in the Louvre in Paris.
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Following on from our start to the year with a story about Turkey, here is another one.

The idea of highlighting disputed artefacts by the original owners is not a new one – Greece has deliberately created casts in the New Acropolis Museum, which contrast with the portions of the portions of the Parthenon Frieze that are original.

From:
Hurriyet

Turkish ministry complains about Louvre Museum to visitors
December/25/2012
Ömer Erbil – ISTANBUL / Radikal

Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry has placed a plaque next to the tomb of Sultan Selim II located in the Hagia Sophia complex to notify visitors that the grave’s tiles are replacements as the originals are in France’s famous Louvre Museum.

“These tiles are an imitation of the original ones. The original tiles are exhibited in the Louvre Museum,” the information plaque states in three languages, Turkish, English and French.
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I am a bit confused by this story – not least because, it is not at all clear that the Mona Lisa was ever removed from Italy without permission. As with many such claims, comparisons to the Elgin Marbles fail to see the uniqueness of the Parthenon Sculptures case – in that they were part of a building, as well as part of a greater whole – and therefore specifically designed to be seen in the context of the Athenian Acropolis.

Further to this, the whole argument that these should be returned because they are like the Elgin Marbles fails to note that the Palermo Fragment of the Parthenon Frieze was loaned to Greece with great reluctance by the Italian Museum authorities & had to be returned in March 2010 once the loan term ran out.

At the same time, it appears, at least from the article, that Italy’s National Committee for Historical, Cultural and Environmental Heritage has made a formal request to France – it seems odd that such a thing can have happened with relatively little prior news coverage, for such a well known artefact. At the same time though, if a formal request was made, issues are raised of how Italy can manage to raise one so easily, while the Greek Government has not made any sort of official formal request for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures since before the Athens Olympics.

I can see very little chance of France taking this request seriously – unless Italy comes up with a huge amount of more compelling evidence (none of which currently exists, to the best of my knowledge).

From:
Independent

We want our masterpiece back – Italians petition France to return Mona Lisa to Florence
Michael Day, Milan
Saturday 08 September 2012

Italian campaigners have collected more than 150,000 signatures calling on the Louvre Museum in Paris to hand over Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa to its “home city” of Florence.

The National Committee for Historical, Cultural and Environmental Heritage says it has made a formal request to the French Culture Minister, Aurelie Filippetti, for the world’s most famous painting to be returned to the Uffizi Gallery, where was displayed briefly a century ago.
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The Korean manuscripts that ended up in Paris’s Bibliotheque Nationale have now returned to Korea. Agreements have also been made for the return of various artefacts held by Japan.

From:
Art Daily

Korean Royal Books Looted by French Soldiers in the 19th Century Get Colorful Welcome
Friday, June 24, 2011
By: Kelly Olsen, Associated Press

SEOUL (AP).- South Korea celebrated the return of nearly 300 royal books looted by French soldiers in the 19th century with solemn ceremonies Saturday bringing alive the color and pageantry of a bygone royal age.

Bearers dressed in bright red costumes of the Joseon Dynasty carried a palanquin containing some of the books to central Seoul’s Gyeongbok Palace to the piercing sound of traditional horns and gongs.
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More coverage of the dispute between Iran & the Louvre in Paris.

From:
Press TV

Iran rejects Louvre Museum claims
Thu Apr 28, 2011 12:34PM

In a statement released on Wednesday, the National Museum of Iran said that a cultural agreement was signed between Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) and the Louvre Museum on October 31, 2004, under which the two museums were supposed to hold exhibitions in the Iranian and French capitals.

The agreement, which is in English, Persian and French, has clearly stated that the two museums can exchange experts and cooperate in research and educational activities, IRNA reported.
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More coverage of Iran’s dispute with The Louvre. This situation is not dissimilar to the one between Iran & the British Museum over the Cyrus Cylinder in 2010.

From:
The Independent

Iran at odds with France over ancient artworks
By John Lichfield in Paris
Friday, 8 April 2011

Iran has declared a cultural war with one of the world’s largest museums, the Louvre in Paris, which it accuses of reneging on a promise to send part of its collection of ancient Persian artefacts to an exhibition in Tehran.

The Iranian vice president and culture minister, Hamid Baghai, said this week that Tehran was cutting all relations with the museum but he failed to pursue a threat, made in February, to sever all cultural links between Iran and France.
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Iran appears to have carried out its earlier threats to end cooperation with the Louvre, due to unresolved disputes that it has with the museum.

From:
Press TV

Monday Apr 04, 201102:42 PM GMT
Iran severs ties with Louvre Museum
4th april 2011

Iran says it has severed all ties with the Louvre Museum because the French art center has not shown any commitment to the promises it made.

“Based on the agreement between the Louvre and Iran’s Cultural heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHTO), the museum must hold an exhibition of its ancient artifacts in Iran,” Head of ICHTO Hamid Baqaei told a press conference on Monday.
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In a similar way to last years dispute with the British Museum, Iran is now threatening to withdraw cultural ties with France, if the Louvre does not proceed with a planed exhibition within an agreed timescale.

From:
Channel News Asia

Iran warns France over Louvre artefacts: report
Posted: 31 January 2011 2028 hrs

TEHRAN – Tehran has warned it will cut cultural ties with France if renowned Paris museum The Louvre fails to set up an exhibition of Persian artefacts in Iran as agreed, an official was Monday cited as saying.

“If this museum (The Louvre) fails to fulfill its commitment with the (Iranian) Cultural Heritage Organisation in the next two months, then we will cut cultural ties with France,” head of the organisation Hamid Baghai was quoted as saying by Tehran Emrouz newspaper.
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Despite protests that the return should not even be considered, negotiations are now ongoing between France & Korea to sort out the details of the return of manuscripts from the BNF.

From:
Digital Chosun ilbo

France, Korea Begin Negotiations on Return of Looted Books
Arirang News / Dec. 08, 2010 11:23 KST

Talks over the return of Korean royal texts looted by the French Navy in 1866 have begun, a month after President Lee Myung-bak and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy struck an agreement on the transfer.

The Korean Embassy in France announced on Tuesday that follow-up discussions began last weekend, amidst an expected backlash from French political conservatives and curators at the National Library of France.
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No sooner than France had announced the return of the Royal Manuscripts to Korea, many were trying to raise new arguments against the return.

It is worth bearing in mind, that for many years, whilst the manuscripts were in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the library itself did not realise that they owned them, as they were not catalogued correctly.

From:
The Art Tribune

Korean manuscripts: the end of inalienability ?
Didier Rykner, Sunday 21 November 2010

The decision made by Nicolas Sarkozy during his trip to Seoul for the G20 summit will have far reaching consequences for national heritage, adding to those already endangering it.
Many of us had suspected as much but Vincent Noce’s revelations in Libération on 18 November 2010, accompanied by a text protesting the move and signed by several curators at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, confirms it beyond a doubt: the restitution of the Korean manuscripts by Nicolas Sarkozy, a political and diplomatic act, is in fact, totally illegal.

Some are already congratulating themselves for France’s so-called generosity without understanding the ins and outs of this affair. In an opinion expressed in Le Monde on 17 November 2010, two university presidents and Jack Lang write that these manuscripts “constitute a unique and essential historical record for Korea”.
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