Museums (generally those wanting to avoid repatriating artefacts in their collections) regularly talk about giving high quality replicas to the original communities that artefacts came from.

This example uses holographic technology – but, as with every time this issue crops up, if it is good enough for the original owners, then why isn’t it good enough for the current owners to keep the digital replica & return the original?

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 08:03 GMT, Thursday, 6 May 2010 09:03 UK
Hologram artefacts go on display at Llangollen museum

A museum is displaying holographic images of artefacts made using a new imaging technique pioneered in Wales.

The holograms and 3D computer images will be shown at the Llangollen Museum in Denbighshire.
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Vasiliki Savvidou-Mihalarea, an English teacher from Rhodes, has sent me a poem that she has written about the Elgin Marbles.

SILENT AWAITING

Marble pieces lie about
burdened with century- old dust
and great deeds of the past,
polished with sweat and labour
AWAIT the return of
their counterparts, lost and gone
to faraway lands.
Handicapped the Parthenon stands
with a bright amputated sun
casting its light, always bright
on this axed colossal cradle.
The great Greek spirit immortal,
hovers restlessly above, seeking
the pieces of this great monument.
The parade of life-depicting figures,
so elaborately carved on marble,
are now sad, a vehicle of the past
they have now become.
The pilgrims to the gentle spirit
stand in awe before the Parthenon
and a sudden sadness fills their heart
when they see the Temple
handicapped and so brutally attacked.

Vasiliki Savvidou-Mihalarea
Teacher of English
Translator/Interpreter
Rhodes, Greece.