Huge amounts of artefacts from China have ended up in the hands of museums around the world. Estimates suggest that ten times as many are lost from view in the hands of private collectors.

From:
People’s Daily Online

UPDATED: 08:11, January 30, 2007
More than 10 million Chinese cultural relics lost overseas: report

Chinese experts estimated that more than 10 million Chinese cultural relics have been lost overseas, Monday’s overseas edition of the People’s Daily reported.

Most of the cultural relics were robbed and illegally shipped out of China during the war times before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Culture Relics Society said.
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Students in Greece have linked hands to form a chain around the Acropolis to raise awareness for the campaign to return the marbles.

If you go to there original article, there is also a video clip on the same page of an interview with some of the people involved.

From:
Reuters

‘We want our marbles back!’
Report
02:02

Students in Greece form chain around Acropolis in campaign to bring back Parthenon marbles from Britain.

Thousands of Greek students formed a human chain around the Acropolis to protest for the return of the Parthenon marbles, ancient sculptures that once crowned the Parthenon before being removed by a British Lord in the early 19th century.

Greece has been campaigning for the return of the marbles from London’s British Museum since 1982.

Deborah Kyvrikosaios reports.

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

Nine tattooed Maori heads are to be returned to New Zealand by the University of Aberdeen.

Form:
ic Renfrewshire

Maori heads returned to homeland
Jan 29 2007

A collection of Maori warrior heads which have gathered dust in a British museum for nearly two centuries are being returned to their ancestral homeland.

The University of Aberdeen has agreed to repatriate the preserved human remains to New Zealand.

The nine tattooed Maori heads (toi moko) have been in the university’s Marischal Museum since the 1820s.

Following requests by the Australian government, University College London has agreed not to perform any tests on Aboriginal remains before they are returned.

From:
The Australian

This story is from our news.com.au network Source: AAP
London uni to return remains
January 30, 2007

INDIGENOUS Affairs Minister Mal Brough has applauded a decision by the University College London (UCL) to return to Australia all Aboriginal remains in its collection.

Mr Brough said UCL’s anatomy department had initially requested to do further research on the remains, but decided against it after asked not to by the Australian Government.
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Many of Britain’s most prestigious museums do not insure much of their collections due to prohibitive costs. As such, it is hard for the public to find out what the institution really believes the value of specific artefacts to be. The Accounting Standards Board is suggesting that museums should make valuations of their assets. If this does happen it will be very interesting to see how much the British really feel that disputed artefacts such as the Elgin Marbles are worth.

From:
Financial Times Deutch

26-01-07
UK urged to put a price on its heritage
von Jim Pickard

The Accounting Standards Board (ASB), which sets the rules for number-crunchers, has issued a draft paper suggesting museums and heritage groups should value their assets for the first time.
The Elgin marbles, Stonehenge and the Crown jewels are labelled “priceless” for good reason. But that may soon change under plans to calculate the value of all the heritage assets in Britain.
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Further details of the return of three paintings from the Courtauld Institute. The paintings belonged originally to the same Dr Feldmann who’s heirs previously brought a case against the British Museum with only partial success.

From:
Washington Post

London Gallery to Return Looted Art
The Associated Press
Thursday, January 25, 2007; 12:47 PM

LONDON — A London gallery has agreed to return three Old Master drawings that were looted by the Nazis during World War II to the family of their Czech owner.

Britain’s culture ministry said Wednesday it had accepted a recommendation from the government’s Spoliation Advisory Panel that the works be returned to the family of Arthur Feldmann, a Czech doctor whose property was stolen when the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939. He was tortured and killed by the Nazis; his wife, Gisela, died at Auschwitz.
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The Courtauld Institute becomes the next British Institution to reach an agreement to return items in its collection believed to have been looted by the Nazis. As I have mentioned before, the relatively enlightened policies involving nazi loot restitution are in marked contrast to the policies of most of Britain’s museums where other artefacts are concerned.

From
The Scotsman

Friday, 26th January 2007
Arts institute to return art looted by Nazis
By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) – Three drawings looted by the Nazis in 1939 will be returned to the original owner’s heirs by Courtauld Institute of Art, the government said on Wednesday.

“A lion”, attributed to Carl Ruthart and “An architectural capriccio”, attributed to Giuseppe Bibiena, will be handed over by the Courtauld to the heirs of Czech collector Arthur Feldmann.
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Parties in New Zealand trying to retrieve Taonga artefacts museums have been told the the government has no official policy on this issue if the items in question do not involve human remains.

From:
Stuff (New Zealand)

No policy on return of taonga, tribunal told
NZPA | Tuesday, 23 January 2007

There is no explicit Government policy to support the repatriation of taonga, the Waitangi Tribunal was told today.

“The Ministry of Culture and Heritage has not prepared a policy document on repatriation of taonga to New Zealand and there is not one under development,” the ministry’s deputy chief executive Jane Kominik said.

She told the tribunal that the Government had made Te Papa its agent to seek return of koiwi – human remains – but there was no similar process for other taonga, such as artefacts of stone, wood or textiles.
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The Greek Ministry of Culture wants a London auction to be suspended, as it believes that items in the sale came from the house of the former king of Greece who now lives in London. A lot of confusion seems to surround where these items originated & how they left Greece. It is a shame though that the clampdown on looting of artefacts seems to be turning into a partisan political issue.

From:
BBC News

Last Updated: Monday, 22 January 2007, 23:15 GMT
Greek protest over London auction
By Malcolm Brabant
BBC News, Athens

Greece’s culture minister has called on Christie’s, the London auction house, to suspend this week’s auction of treasures belonging to the former Greek royal household.

George Voulgarakis sent a letter to Christie’s claiming that the artefacts belonged to the Greek state. It will be delivered via the Greek Embassy’s London solicitors.
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Italian authorities are investigating antiquities in Japan’s museums to see if they have been illegally looted.

Thanks to Peter Durfee for alerting me to this article.

From:
Japan Focus

Is Japan a Cultural Looter?
By Hisane MASAKI

Italian authorities investigate Roman antiquities in Japanese museums, just as Japan launches a global cultural offensive.

Japan still has a long way to go before completely shedding its image as a safe haven for illegal cultural traders.
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In the Sunday Times, Waldemar Januszczak again highlights the problems of the cleaning of the Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum under the instruction of Lord Duveen & why this was such a bad thing.

From:
Sunday Times

The Sunday Times
January 21, 2007

What do we want?
For all its anger, Mark Wallinger’s protest art fails to ignite Waldemar Januszczak
Last week, in my review of the punchy Dexter Dalwood show at the Gagosian gallery, I noted that protest art seemed to be back in favour and predicted that we would be seeing more of it in 2007. But I didn’t expect to be proved right quite so quickly. Then I tootled off to Tate Britain, only to discover that even this intrinsically cowardly institution has been bitten by the protest bug and is currently marching down Whitehall shouting: “What do we want? Blair out! When do want it? Now!” Not literally, of course. Conceptually. The Tate has handed over its prime exhibition space to the reliably naughty Mark Wallinger, and he has seized the opportunity to organise a cheeky intervention that raises lots of interesting questions, then scarpers. It’s typical Wallinger. He’s such an irritating artist. So much of what he dreams up gets you thinking, but there’s never a proper payoff.
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Following a ruling last year, worshipers of the twelve ancient Olympian gods held a ceremony at the Temple of Zeus in Athens. They are hoping to also be able to use the Acropolis for their ceremonies. I’m still a little unconvinced at the validity of all of this, not least in how distant what they are doing now actually is compared to how things were carried out in Ancient Greece.

From:
BBC News

Last Updated: Sunday, 21 January 2007, 15:11 GMT
Zeus devotees worship in Athens
By Malcolm Brabant
BBC News, Athens

Worshippers who believe in the 12 gods of ancient Greece have held a ceremony at the Temple of Zeus in Athens.

This is a landmark event to celebrate official recognition of their religion by a court last year.

The Greek Orthodox Church has said they are miserable resuscitators of a degenerate dead religion.
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