More coverage of the peculiar ending to the current chapter of the row over the disputed Chinese artefacts auctioned from the collection of Yves Saint Lauren. Whether his actions were right or wrong, they have had great success in highlighting the problems that arise when items such as this are sold whilst their ownership is disputed.

From:
The Globe & Mail (Canada)

Bidder butts heads with Christie’s over looted art
MARK MACKINNON
Sources: BBC, CNN, Washington Times, McClatchy
March 3, 2009

BEIJING — For 150 years, the bronze heads of the rabbit and rat have passed from one rich Western owner to the next, symbols of what many Chinese consider a time of national humiliation.

Where they end up next remains in doubt after a Chinese collector says he won a controversial auction for the two 18th-century artworks last week in Paris, but refuses to pay the price, which is over $50-million.
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Most people inherently accept nowadays that it is wrong to take pieces of ancient artefacts home. Throughout history, there are always people who have been ignorant (whether knowingly or unknowingly) of such rules (whether they are written or unwritten). Nowadays, those that are ignorant of these rules invariably have to face the consequences when they are found out.

From:
Globe & Mail (Boston)

How to avoid a $17,000 souvenir
Some travellers are ignorant. Others blatant ‘touristic vandals.’ Either way, picking up a rock of ages can cost you – or make your next hotel a jail cell. Dave McGinn reports on the problem of protocol
DAVE MCGINN
June 4, 2008 at 10:20 AM EDT

All Madelaine Gierc wanted was to be in a photograph. Instead, she wound up at the centre of an international incident.

During a trip to Greece in 2005, the then-16-year-old student from Duncan, B.C., picked up a rock on a path near the Parthenon and was promptly arrested, charged and jailed. Under the country’s protection laws, it is illegal to buy, sell, own or excavate antiquities without a special permit – a crime that carries a maximum 10-year sentence. She claimed, however, that she only intended to use the rock as a prop in a photo and was released after two days in an Athens jail.
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The Axum Obelisk was taken from Ethiopia by Mussolini’s forces in 1937, after they had conquered the country. Plans are now under-way to return it back to its original location.

From:
Globe & Mail (Canada)

Friday, Oct. 24, 2003
A monumental plunder:
Massive object was taken from Ethiopia by Mussolini, ALAN FREEMAN reports from Rome
By ALAN FREEMAN
From Friday’s Globe and Mail

The Aksum obelisk is finally about to go home to Ethiopia, if only a way can be found to get it there.After years of delays and prevarications, the Italian government has decided to return the 24-metre-high granite funeral stele — plundered by the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini in 1937 as booty from his newly conquered African empire.

Scaffolding already obscures the obelisk, which stands on the curbside of a busy piazza in central Rome.
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The Haida Repatriation Committee has been fighting for the return of their ancestral bones from museums around the world. They have already had a lot of successes, but it has been a difficult struggle & there is still a lot further to go.

From:
Globe and Mail

POSTED AT 4:04 AM EDT Saturday, Aug. 16, 2003
Bones of contention
For decades the remains of B.C.’s Haida ancestors have been locked away in metal drawers as specimens in museums around the world. Now, the Haida are fighting to bring them home, ALEXANDRA GILL writes
By ALEXANDRA GILL
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail

SKIDEGATE, B.C. — Andy Wilson has spent the past seven years collecting some very special bones. Bones so precious they can’t be kept here, in the main cemetery, overlooking the tiny town of Skidegate on the Queen Charlotte Islands.

The bones are buried in a sacred grove, somewhere in the spruce forest behind us, explains Wilson, the soft-spoken man who co-chairs the local committee responsible for bringing the human remains of his Haida ancestors back home.
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The recent statements by the Canadian Prime Minster, Jean Chrétien, indicate that he has no idea what is going on in his own government – and more worryingly, that he does not check what is happening, before making statements about issues.

From:
Globe & Mail

Thursday, May. 29, 2003
Elgin Marbles trip up PM in Greece
By SHAWN McCARTHY and JANE TABER
From Thursday’s Globe and Mail

Athens and Ottawa — Prime Minister Jean Chrétien tripped over the Elgin Marbles issue yesterday, not knowing that both the House of Commons and the Senate have adopted motions calling on Britain to return the ancient works of art to Greece.

No help to the Prime Minister, in Athens at the start of an 11-day European visit, was Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham, who also had no clue that on Tuesday the Senate adopted a motion encour­aging the United Kingdom to return the sculptures to Greece before the 2004 Athens Olympics.
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