The director of the Centre for Black African Art and Civilization in Nigeria has written to the British Museum asking for the return of the a mask looted from Benin in 1897.

From:
Vanguard (Nigeria)

Hope rises for return of looted FESTAC mask: as CBAAC marks 30 years anniversary….
By Mcphilips Nwachukwu
Posted to the Web: Thursday, March 22, 2007

There is every indication to believe that the looted original FESTAC mask may be returned to the country in long time. This indication came, last week, when the Director of Centre for Black African Art and Civilization(CBAAC), Professor Tunde Babawale, unreeled plans for this month’s marking of 30 years anniversary of the 2nd black festival of Arts and Culture, which held in Nigeria in 1977.

Speaking to journalists, the parastatal director said that CBBAC has written to the British Museum, demanding a return of the original FESTAC mask, which has remained in their custody following the looting visited on the ancient Benin Kingdom in 1897.
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The Louvre feels that Greece is putting pressure on them to call for the British Museum to return the Elgin Marbles. From the information given in the article though, it is unclear what evidence there is to support this particular claim.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Greeks enlist Louvre in battle for Elgin Marbles
By Henry Samuel in Paris
Last Updated: 1:51am GMT 21/03/2007

Greece is putting pressure on the Louvre museum in its long-running campaign to retrieve the Elgin marbles from Britain.

The Greeks have refused to lend the French an ancient sculpture for an exhibition because, they say, it is too fragile to be moved from Athens.
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Yesterday, the Marbles Reunited campaign completed a re-branding exercise with a relaunch event in the House of Commons. The committee is chaired by Eddie O’Hara MP & Speakers at the Event included Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis, the president of the Organisation for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum, Dr Nigel Spivey of Cambridge University & David Hill, Chair of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.
Marbles Reunited was formerly also known as Parthenon 2004.

From:
The Times Blogs

March 23, 2007
Supping with the devil?

If anyone is following my Lenten abstinence, I must confess that yesterday I deemed the Irish Embassy (which was hosting a friend’s book launch) to be foreign soil and I allowed myself a couple of whiskies. It was the first alcohol that I have knowingly consumed in several weeks, unless you count some sherry sauce on a bowl of ice cream.

I’m not a regular at embassy parties, but – alcohol or not – this little piece of Ireland seemed an unusually jolly place, from the welcoming doorman to the cloakroom attendant and the generous barmen. The consequence, I suspect, of being a small nation which is doing very nicely thank you, and which (unlike us) no-one hates.
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This rather negative piece about the relaunch of the Marbles Reunited campaign. The writer seems to have missed the fact that the uncanny resemblance to another Marbles Reunited campaign was because it was a relaunch – as stated in all promotional material surrounding the event. Parthenon 2004 was essentially absorbed into Marbles Reunited, as the name was no longer relevant once the Athens Olympics had passed. The New Acropolis Museum is now far closer to opening by 2008 than it ever was in 2004 – it is well past the point of no return, where legal battles etc can no longer delay progress on it.

From:
CultureGrrl

March 21, 2007
Yet Another Campaign to Reunite the Parthenon Marbles

Speaking of losing battles that I have journalistically championed…

A new campaign was launched today in Great Britain, chaired by Parliament member Edward O’Hara, to return the British Museum’s portion of the Parthenon marbles to Greece. I’ve supported the rejoining of the marbles numerous times (most notably in this NY Times Op-Ed piece), on the grounds that the sculptural frieze is a single work, depicting a continuous procession. To split it in pieces violates the integrity of one of the great masterpieces of Western Civilization.
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More information on the visit to the New Acropolis Museum site by British MPs.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Friday March 16, 2007
Museum is inching ahead

The construction of the long-awaited New Acropolis Museum is likely to be completed this summer but visitors will probably not be allowed into the building until next year, Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis told a group of MPs yesterday.

A year ago, Voulgarakis said that work on the museum would be finished by this month and visitors would be allowed in by the end of 2007 but the project, initially scheduled for completion before the 2004 Olympics, is slightly behind.
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British MPs from the DCMS Select Committee have been visiting Athens to find out more about the issues that Greece had when organising the Olympics. As part of this visit, they were also taken around the site of the New Acropolis Museum. Now there is less excuse than before for DCMS to be badly informed about Greece’s efforts to have the Parthenon Sculptures returned.

From:
Athens News Agency

03/17/2007
MPs tour new Acropolis Museum site

Culture Minister George Voulgarakis on Thursday gave members of Parliament’s standing committee on cultural and educational affairs a guided tour of the under-construction Acropolis Museum site.

Voulgarakis stressed that the project is progressing as planned, with a completion date due this summer.
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British Museum Director is trying desperately to re-cast the British Museums aims as a museum, not for Britain, but for the world. This involves making agreements with various other countries – unfortunately, the museums only ever wants to negotiate where it can dictate the terms of any sort of agreement.

From:
The Guardian Blogs

The memory of humankind preserves our global sanity
The British Museum is running a different kind of foreign policy and challenging the myth of the clash of civilisations
Madeleine Bunting
Thursday March 15, 2007
The Guardian

In the Forbidden Palace, in the heart of Beijing, is a set of objects which tell a story of compelling fascination to the crowds of young Chinese journalists. The exhibition, traces, through a selection from the British Museum collection, the story of a country’s industrialisation and rise to world power in an era of rapid globalisation – Britain in the 18th century. But the parallels with China were obvious to all except the Chinese curators, who remained diplomatically evasive.
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British Museum director Neil MacGregor regularly refers to Cultural Diplomacy. It was also the focus of a recent study by Demos. Here, in a debate by MPs on the subject, Derek Wyatt MP talks about possible methods of settling the Elgin Marbles Dispute.

From:
Hansard

13 Mar 2007 : Column 24WH
Cultural Diplomacy
11 am

[…]

13 Mar 2007 : Column 30WH

[…]

Derek Wyatt (Sittingbourne and Sheppey) (Lab): I congratulate the hon. Member for Bath (Mr. Foster) on securing the debate. I have sent four letters to Mr. Speaker in the past four weeks requesting a debate on soft power, because it is a very important part of cultural diplomacy.

I have been most influenced by Joseph Nye’s book on soft power. I was lucky enough to meet him at Harvard university just before Christmas, and we have not fully understood the way in which cultural diplomacy and soft power can work together. In the forthcoming spending review, I bet that the one activity to be cut will be all the cultural diplomacy and soft power touches, because we cannot see them. I should like to see the cultural diplomacy budgets across Government, and I should like to see them itemised. Do they amount to 1 per cent., 5 per cent., or 10 per cent.? It is easy to do that for tanks, weapons and missiles, but it is less easy for cultural diplomacy, but if we are to realise what soft power can do in the world, we must see those budgets.
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An insightful analysis of the criticism that has been received by the Louvre for its decision to collaborate with Abu Dhabi in exchange for funding.

From:
Arabian Business (UAE)

Last updated: Thursday, 15 March 2007 04:00 UAE time
Less than artful criticism
by Ben Flanagan on Wednesday, 14 March 2007

Reading some of the West’s coverage of Dubai and Abu Dhabi’s recent forays into the art world, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Louvre Museum in Paris lets people in for free, or that London’s Tate Modern pays for its art with chicken soup and crayons rather than cash.

“Appalling!” was how one of the Louvre’s honorary curators described Abu Dhabi’s $1.3bn deal to borrow the Louvre’s name and hundreds of artworks. “It’s a shame to see France selling out its heritage,” he said.
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A reminder, that the Nazis weren’t the only ones involved in looting during the Second World War.

From:
Deutsche Welle (Germany)

Art | 14.03.2007
Readers Say Russia Should Return Seized Artifacts to Germany

Pieces of art seized from German museums by Soviet soldiers in 1945 are now on display at a Moscow exhibition. The ownership of the artifacts has been disputed since the war. Readers advocated this week for their return.

The following comments reflect the views of our readers. Not all reader comments have been published. DW-WORLD.DE reserves the right to edit for length and appropriateness of content.
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Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George has recently become involved with the case for the return of the Parthenon Marbles & as a starting point has tabled and Early Day Motion highlighting some new aspects of the case. Previous posts on EDMs explain the purpose of Early Day Motions.

From:
Parliamentary Information Management Web Site

EDM 1140
EARLY DAY MOTION
RESTITUTION OF THE PARTHENON MARBLES

14.03.2007
George, Andrew

That this House is pleased to acknowledge the planned opening, later this year, of the New Acropolis Museum in Athens which clearly demonstrates the capacity of the Greek authorities to receive and satisfactorily install those marbles from the Parthenon which were, in the past, removed in previous periods, including the so-called Elgin Marbles; Read the rest of this entry »

The British High commissioner to South Africa, Paul Boateng, says that bureaucracy & corruption are hindering any attempts for Africa to retrieve it cultural heritage from the west.

From:
All Africa

Africa: Paul Boateng Blames Kufuor & Co
Public Agenda (Accra)
March 12, 2007
Posted to the web March 12, 2007
Selorm Amevor
Accra

The British High Commissioner to South Africa, Hon. Paul Boateng has accused African leaders of failing to retrieve the cultural objects and artifacts that have been stolen from the continent.

He said the history of Africa is being threatened by the neglect of artifacts and archives that have been stolen from the continent.
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