In response to the return of the Axum Obelisks to Ethiopia (covered in detail over the last month) the Boston Globe has an interesting article about other similar looted items, & points out that looting is still very much a current problem, not just a historical phase, as evidenced after the fall of Baghdad.

From:
The Boston Globe

GRANT PARKER
The Boston Globe
Return looted treasures to their rightful owners

By Grant Parker | April 30, 2005

LAST WEEK a cargo jet brought the first part of a 1,700-year-old Ethiopian pillar from Italy to its historic home in the city of Axum. The return of this treasure has great significance, not just for the Italian and Ethiopian governments, but for cultural property disputes worldwide.
Many, in Ethiopia and beyond, have welcomed its return. It ends decades of public outcry against successive Italian governments since Mussolini had the pillar — generally referred to as an obelisk but more correctly called a stele — brought from Axum in 1937, during the Italian wartime occupation.
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In a change to the longstanding previous policy of trying to fund the entirety of the Acropolis restoration themselves, the Greek Government is now suggesting that private sponsors could also contribute money towards the restoration works. Quite possibly part of the cutbacks on spending that are facing many of the Greek government departments at present.

From:
Kathimerini

Friday April 29, 2005
Sponsors may be invited to pay for Acropolis works
Government says project will take another 16 years, 70 million euros

Dismayed by spiraling costs and a seemingly open-ended completion schedule for conservation works on Greece’s most iconic archaeological site, the government is thinking of seeking private sponsorship to expedite the Acropolis project.
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Deputy director of Benaki Museum Stavros Vlizos is speaking at this conference in Sydney on Tuesday 3rd May about the efforts to repatriate the Elgin Marbles.

From:
Sydney Morning Herald

Museum talks: fun and war
By Alexa Moses
April 29, 2005

Lord of the Rings or Uzbekistani embroidery? No prizes for guessing which recent exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum attracted more visitors.

The balance between scholarship and audience appeal is one of the topics 450 international and Australian museum experts will grapple with at Museums Australia’s national conference, Politics and Positioning, which begins in Sydney on Sunday. Museums Australia is the professional association for museum and gallery workers. Read the rest of this entry »

A museum in Brussels has announced that it going to return a relief that was smuggled out of Egypt 30 years ago.

From:
Egypt Election

Ancient Egypt: EGYPT – The Mystery of the Lost Antiquities
Posted on Tuesday, April 26 @ 22:25:38 EDT
Topic: Ancient Egypt Information
The unceasing mysteries of Egypt’s antiquities
Brussels museum is to return a stolen 5th dynasty relief

CAIRO: A Brussels museum will hand over to Egypt a limestone relief that had been smuggled out of the country more than 30 years ago, an Egyptian antiquities official said Monday.

The Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels, Belgium, agreed to return the relief, which was stolen from the Giza tomb of a 5th dynasty priest, Senenu, said Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. In return, an archaeological mission belonging to the museum will be allowed to continue its work in Egypt, he said.
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At last, this chapter in the history of the Axum Obelisk is closed. There is still debate going on within Ethiopia about whether it can be re-erected in its original location, or whether this may cause other complications.

As I have mentioned previously, the Ethiopians are now turning their efforts to other treasures that have been taken from their countries in the past.

From:
The Guardian

3rd Piece of Axum Obelisk Back in Ethiopia
Monday April 25, 2005 10:46 AM

By ANTHONY MITCHELL
Associated Press Writer

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) – The third and final piece of the Axum obelisk was returned to Ethiopia from Italy on Monday, as thousands cheered the end of an almost 70-year dispute over a symbol of African civilization stolen by European troops as a war prize.

“This is the land of the Queen of Sheba, and the obelisk belongs here,” said Ethiopian President Girma Wolde-Giogis, wiping tears of joy from his eyes. “I never thought I would be alive to see its return.”
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A fascinating article about the ethics of collectors / dealers of artworks & cultural artefacts & whether or not they are able to take the moral high ground in their belief that they are preserving rather than destroying the works.

From:
Reason Online

April 2005
Ancient Treasures for Sale
Do antique dealers preserve the past or steal it?
Steven Vincent

As you read this, criminals somewhere in the world are destroying portions of mankind’s past. With backhoe and shovel, chainsaw and crowbar, they are wrenching priceless objects from sites in the mountains of Peru, the coasts of Sicily, and the deserts of Iraq. Brutal and uncaring, these robbers leave behind a wake of decapitated statues, mutilated temples, and pillaged trenches where archaeologists were seeking clues to little-understood civilizations. The results of this looting include disfigured architectural monuments, vanished aesthetic objects, and an incalculable loss of information about the past. And it shows no signs of diminishing.
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The Ethiopians appear to be doing rather well at reclaiming their heritage at the moment.
Following on from various articles last year about how the Tabots were locked away in the Museum store, where not even the director was allowed to see them, they are now leaving the museum on (permanent?) loan to an Ethiopian church in London.

The British Museum is also co-operating on the development of new museums in Ethiopia.

I’m assuming that this announcement has little to do with the requests made by the Ethiopians earlier this week for the return of various cultural treasures, as this has to have been under discussion for a long time before that. Something seems a bit odd about the timing though, that the two events should occur in such close succession – In some ways it negates the Ethiopians request, as it appears that the BM is doing something to respond to it, whereas if they had made their request a few days later, it could have instead ridden on the back of the publicity surrounding the loan of the Tabots, to highlight how many other items still remained in the museum.

Is this a sign of a softening in approach by the British Museum towards the repatriation of cultural treasures?

From:
The Art Newspaper

Holy tabots to be transferred from British Museum to Ethiopian church
The works will probably never return to the museum

LONDON. The British Museum has agreed to transfer its Ethiopian tabots (or holy tablets) to a church in London. Later this year the Ethiopians are expected to take over a redundant Anglican church, and a crypt or secure room will then be set aside to house the symbolically-charged wooden objects, which represent the Ark of the Covenant. The museum has agreed to a five-year extendible loan and the tabots may well never again return to the museum. The arrangement has the blessing of the Patriarch, Abba Paulos.
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Following their success in the return of the Axum Obelisk earlier this week, the Ethiopian government has now requested the Britain returns a number of looted Ethiopian artefacts.

From:
The Times

The Times
April 20, 2005

Britain told by Ethiopia to give back treasures
By Richard Beeston

ETHIOPIA has appealed to Britain to match Italy’s gesture by repatriating hundreds of artefacts plundered by the British Army in the 19th century.

Fisseha Adugna, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to London, told The Times: “We wish to encourage all others who possess Ethiopian cultural and sacred artefacts — both institutions and individuals — to graciously return them to Ethiopia.”
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The Axum Obelisk is finally back in Ethiopia

From:
CNN

Joy as obelisk returns to Ethiopia

Tuesday, April 19, 2005 Posted: 7:50 AM EDT (1150 GMT)

AXUM, Ethiopia (Reuters)
Thousands of Ethiopians cheered and cried joyously as Italy on Tuesday returned the first piece of the Axum obelisk, an ancient national treasure Rome’s fascist regime plundered 68 years ago.

Cheers erupted as the massive cargo jet carrying the first piece of the funerary monument broke through the early-morning mist of the shrouded sky of Axum, a northern city that was the center of ancient Ethiopia’s civilization.
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Following on from the previous article by China Radio International here is some more information about Zhang Yongnian’s attempts to get Chinese cultural treasures returned.

From:
China Radio International

Fund to Get National Treasures Back
2005-4-13 14:14:48
CRIENGLISH.com

China has lost more than one million cultural relics through warfare over the past century or so. From the Opium War in 1840 to the founding of the new China in 1949, countless treasures have been stolen.
Anchor:

China has lost more than one million cultural relics through warfare over the past century or so.

From the Opium War in 1840 to the founding of the new China in 1949, countless treasures have been stolen.

Most of the items are preserved in foreign museums.
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Another article on the return of the Axum Obelisk.
It will be interesting to see what implications this has on other cases from that period.

From:
The Scotsman

Ethiopians celebrate return of 160-ton ‘souvenir’ from Italy

ANDREW HEAVENS
IN AXUM, NORTHERN ETHIOPIA

ABEBE Alemyehu was 12 when he watched Benito Mussolini’s soldiers storm into the Ethiopian town of Axum to steal its ancient obelisk.

Now the 81-year-old is preparing to go out on the streets near his family compound once again, as a new generation of Italians bring the sacred monument back.

Later this month, Italy is due to return the first part of the 24m high 160-ton tower of granite, almost 70 years after its soldiers seized it during fascist Italy’s brief occupation of Ethiopia in the build-up to the Second World War.
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After extensive delays the Axum Obelisk is finally going to be returned to Ethiopia by Italy next Monday. Albeit a long time after the 1947 agreement was signed where Italy agreed to return all property looted from Ethiopia by Mussolini.

From:
News24.com

Ethiopia to get obelisk back
04/04/2005 21:30 – (SA)
Addis Ababa – Italy will return to Ethiopia the first piece of the ancient Axum obelisk on April 11, a government spokesman said Monday, ending a dispute over the religious monument taken to Rome 70 years ago.

The top piece of the 1 700-year-old obelisk will leave Rome by cargo plane on April 10 and be flown directly to Axum, Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesperson Solomon Abebe said.
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