Showing 5 results for the tag: Armenia.

March 6, 2013

Looters of landlords – inconsistent behaviour of countries faced with restitution claims

Posted at 4:20 pm in Similar cases

Turkey has had many recent successes in retrieving disputed artefacts from abroad. This has not been without controversy though – there are many who feel that Turkey is applying different rules, depending on how it suits them, and highlight the problems such as the misappropriation of Armenian art by Turkey as an example of this.

From:
Assyrian International News Agency

Looters or Landlords?
Posted GMT 10-4-2012 0:11:55

Since Fatih Sultan Mohammed occupied Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman rulers have been destroying and desecrating churches, castles, architectural monuments of Hittites, Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and other nationalities who had been the indigenous people of Asia Minor, occupied and ruled through blood and sword.

Now, all of a sudden, the destroyers of all these cultures presume to be landlords, claiming treasures originated in Asia Minor to be returned to the present government of Turkey. Those artifacts and treasures which have been preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty Museum, the Louvre and Pergamon Museum have been saved from the Turks themselves, becoming part of the legacy of human civilization. Had they been left in the hands of the Turks, they would have been doomed to suffer the same fate as the 2,000 Armenian churches, monasteries and architectural monuments which were systematically destroyed and rendered into ashes. After 200,000 Armenians escaped from Van in 1915, the Turkish Army burned tens of thousands of illuminated manuscripts and Bibles on the island monastery of Leem in Lake Akhtamar.
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Facts regarding misappropriation of Armenian art by Azerbaijan and Turkey will be represented to ICOM

Posted at 8:39 am in Similar cases

The Armenian national committee of International Council of Museums is concerned about the misappropriation of Armenian artefacts by neighbouring countries & is making a representation to the Chairman of ICOM Hans-Martin Hinz, regarding this issue.

From:
Armenpress

Facts regarding misappropriation of Armenian art by Azerbaijan and Turkey will be represented to ICOM
10:20, 22 October, 2012

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 22, ARMENPRESS. Armenian national committee of International Council of Museums (ICOM) is very anxious about the fact of misappropriation of Armenian culture by a number of neighboring countries. In order to find solution of this problem Director of ICOM of Armenia Marine Haroyan will represent the situation to the Chairman of ICOM Hans-Martin Hinz. Marine Haroyan said in a conversation with “Armenpress” that this time the matter is about Armenian museum pieces being represented in Azerbaijani, Turkish and other museums as their own. In Marine Haroyan’s opinion the essence of the problem is the following: “They give the following interpretation to this saying that if these pieces of art had been created in their territory, hence these all belongs to them not taking into consideration the fact that these museum pieces are samples of the Armenian culture”.
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April 18, 2012

Youth Fund of Armenia calls for return of bronze head of Goddess Anahit

Posted at 7:52 am in British Museum, Similar cases

More coverage of the calls for the return of the bronze head of the goddess Anahit in the British Museum to Armenia.

From:
Hetq

Group Calls on British Museum to Return Bronze Head of Goddess Anahit
10:56, February 17, 2012

A group in Armenia is calling for the return of a bronze head found in 1872 in the town of Sadak (ancient Satala) in north-eastern Turkey purported to depict the Armenian goddess Anahit.

The head was eventually sold to the British Museum. The Youth Fund of Armenia has written to the British Ambassador in Yerevan, requesting that he convey their message to authorities in London. The Fund states that a petition drive will be soon be launched to this end,
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April 16, 2012

Campaign to return statue of goddess Anahit from the British Museum to Armenia

Posted at 1:03 pm in British Museum, Similar cases

Campaigners in Armenia want the British Museum to return a statue of the goddess Anahit. It is unclear from the article, exactly how the statue came to leave Armenia in the the first place & ended up in the British Museum. It is however, clear, as in many such cases, that the sentimental value of the statue is worth far more to Armenians than it is to the general public who see it in the British Museum.

From:
The Armenian Reporter

Campaign for Anahit’s return to Armenia from British Museum
Published: Monday April 09, 2012

I am a Pre-Med student at the University of California, Irvine studying Biological Sciences. I was born and raised in Yerevan, Armenia. As a child I was taken to every major museum in Yerevan. This has contributed immensely to who I have become today and why I decided to undertake this time-consuming initiative.

I studied in the United Kingdom for some time and my constant visits to the museums led me to the discovery that the fragments of the iconic statue of the goddess Anahit whose image symbolized so much of my childhood (and history) were just sitting there confined within the few sentences of description. Reminiscing the postal stamps, 5000 Dram notes, Agathangelos, Navasard and all the Anahits that I have met throughout my life, I promised myself that upon my return to the States I would do everything in my abilities to have her repatriated to Armenia.
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February 1, 2012

UNESCO ICPRPC committee meets in Azerbaijan

Posted at 2:10 pm in Elgin Marbles, Similar cases

A meeting of UNESCO’s ICPRPC committee in Azerbaijan has considered the protection of cultural artefacts from Azerbaijan, as well as re-visiting the standing restitution appeals for the return of the Parthenon Marbles & the Bogazkoy sphinx.

From:
News.Az

Azerbaijan appeals UNESCO to protects cultural heritage in occupied lands
Wed 06 July 2011 04:25 GMT | 5:25 Local Time

The 17th meeting of the UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation (ICPRCP) was held.

The Department of international relations and cultural programs of Azerbaijan Ministry of Culture and Tourism reports that the issues which were included in the agenda – The restitutions appeals on Parthenon marbles (the United Kingdom of Great Britain – Greece), Bogazkoy sphinx (Germany – Turkey) were examined, the reports by member states and UNESCO partner organizations were listened.
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