Many of the large museums of the west, have in recent years, laid claim to being global museums – museums of such significance that they should own artefacts from around the world (Also known as Universal or Encyclopaedic Museums). In the eyes of the museums, this serves to weaken any claims made by other countries for ownership of items in their collections. There are arguments both for & against this proposition, but I find it hard to see how institutions can become a quasi global entity, that makes decisions about what is best for an artefact, when the role is entirely self-appointed & they own the artefact in question, so are unable to make unbiased judgements on it.

From:
policymic

Which Museums Have the Right to Own World Heritage?
Janine DeFeo in Global, Europe

Issues of the ownership of history periodically assert themselves in current affairs — the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s quiet admission of wrongful possession of some ancient Egyptian artifacts was news not least because the repatriation of objects is often the less common end to these kinds of disputes. Of course, the most famous of these is probably the controversy around the so-called “Elgin marbles” in the British Museum (the sculptures Lord Elgin acquired from the ruins of the Athenian Parthenon while serving as British ambassador to the Ottoman court in the early 19th century).

Since the 1980s, Greece has been trying to get these sculptures back, an effort that received renewed attention in 2009 with the opening of the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, built to prove that Greece could provide an appropriate setting for the objects. There is very little hope of success; the British Museum is, predictably, in no hurry to return the objects (the museum estimates that they are seen by about five million people per year). The British Museum firmly believes in its rights to the objects, and it seems unlikely that they will ever be returned; a blanket call for the return of all antiquities to their place of origin is unrealistic.
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Following taking over as the Chairman of the BCRPM, Eddie O’Hara talks to the BBC about why he believes that the Parthenon Marbles should be returned to Athens. Eddie O’Hara is also the Honorary President of the Marbles Reunited campaign.

From:
BBC News

5 January 2011 Last updated at 13:59
Parthenon Marbles: Taking up the fight
By Trevor Timpson BBC News

Greek calls for the UK to return the Parthenon Marbles, nearly 200 years after they were removed from the Acropolis and shipped to London, have a new advocate leading the battle in the UK.

Former MP Eddie O’Hara, the new chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM), has told the BBC News website he is optimistic the campaign for the British Museum to return the sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, will succeed.
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Neil MacGregor talks of grand encyclopaedic museums, as though this option somehow over-rules all other possibilities. The reality of course is that this is purely a self appointed role for the British Museum. There are no mentions of the terms Encyclopaedic Museum or Universal Museum (its now tarnished pre-cursor) before 2000 that relate to the concept as the British Museum now describes it. Surely if it was such an important aspect of the museum world, articles in the press would have mentioned it before then?

Looking back at the arguments, the Universal Museum ties in partly to Neil MacGregor’s arrival as director of the institution, but also with the beginning of construction work on the New Acropolis Museum. Could it be that they realised that one of their arguments was soon going to be obsolete, so they had to rapidly invent a new one to replace it with?

From:
Scotsman

Book review: A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor
Published Date: 27 November 2010
By Susan Mansfield

A History of the World in 100 Objects
BY Neil MacGregor
Allen Lane, 732 pp, £30

IF POINTS were awarded for sheer, unbridled ambition, Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum, would surely come top of the class. It takes a certain bravado to dream up a 100-part radio series, telling the story of near two million years of world history, each episode pegged to an object which the listeners can’t even see.

Now the book of the series is published, a 700-page doorstop and a major achievement, particularly for a man who put it together while simultaneously running one of the world’s biggest museums. It is, on one level, a shameless plug for that museum, from whose collection all 100 objects come, though if MacGregor is blowing his own institution’s trumpet, he has some justification in doing so.
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As mentioned previously, Neil MacGregor’s series, A history of the world in 100 objects has now finished and has doubtlessly been more successful than the BBC ever imagined it would be. It has however provided a colossal platform for Neil MacGregor (and thus the British Museum’s) viewpoint.

Mary Beard argues here that the series manages to “Forget the idea of imperialist looting or acquisitiveness”, but I’m wondering whether this is not more a case of wishful thinking by the British Museum that people would forget it, as the reality is that for many people (mostly located outside the UK & not necessarily Radio 4 or World Service” listeners), the imperialist looting which is perpetuated today within the British Museum is a continuing source of anguish.

From:
Guardian

A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor – review
Brilliant on radio, Neil MacGregor’s 100 objects also make a marvellous book, says Mary Beard
Mary Beard
The Guardian, Saturday 13 November 2010

Chapter 33 of Neil MacGregor’s marvellous book-of-the-radio-series is about the Rosetta stone. This lump of granite from Egypt, “about the size of one of those large suitcases you see people trundling around on wheels at airports”, is, as he frankly admits, “decidedly dull to look at”. It earns its place in A History of the World in 100 Objects because in the 19th century the equally dull text – on tax breaks for priests, inscribed upon it, in three different languages (Greek, demotic Egyptian and hieroglyphs) – became the key to decoding the hieroglyphic script of the ancient pharaohs.

But, more than that, the stone also has a powerful modern history of its own. It was fought over by French and British troops at the end of the Napoleonic wars, and finally taken to London. MacGregor is one of the few to point out that it is actually inscribed in four, not three, languages: on its side, we can still read, in English, “Captured in Egypt by the British Army in 1801.”
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Jim O’Donnell has written an interesting review of James Cuno’s book on the so-called Encyclopaedic Museum.

As with many other readers of this book, he has come across gaping flaws in some of the arguments presented by Cuno.

From:
Around The World in Eighty Years

Book Review: “Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle Over Our Ancient Heritage”
Posted on November 15, 2010

Last week, New York’s Metropolitan Museum announced that it will return 19 objects from King Tut’s tomb to Egypt – 19 small bits and fragments. The Met has been quick to toot its own horn, saying the return of these objects was voluntary and that they were under no legal obligation to do anything. But we’re not talking the Rosetta Stone here. Nor the famous Nefertiti bust held in Berlin. Nor the incredible Haremhad statue detained at the Met. Nineteen trinkets is nothing to crow about. Ahhh but the magnanimous purveyos of culture will crow.

Stolen objects that reside in the great museums of the world are nothing more than a monument to imperialism and the days of overt exploitation.
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It is a few years now since the Declaration of Universal Museums. Whilst many have declared that the concept (as portrayed at the time) is dead in the water, this powerful group of institutions still have the potential to manipulate popular opinion & to over-rule the more democratic backbones of the museum community such as ICOM.

From:
Guardian News (Nigeria)

Fatwa of Cairo gathering on looted artefacts
By Tajudeen Sowole

COLLECTIVE attempt made last month – perhaps for the first time – by countries demanding for restitution of disputed cultural objects is though laudable. However, it is an uphill task and capable of rattling existing conventions on the issue.

The two-day conference tagged International Cooperation for the Protection and Repatriation of Cultural Heritage and held in Cairo, Egypt came eight years after keepers of these artefacts gathered under the name, Bizot Group and declared a concept of universal museum. The ownership of such works, Bizot argued in France, should not be confined to geographical boundaries.
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A few years ago, various major museums around the world released a declaration on the Importance & Value of Universal Museums – a declaration that was essentially an attempt at justifying their own modus operandi. Whether they call themselves Universal, Encyclopaedic or Enlightenment museums, it seems that in their own eyes they must continue to exist in their current form,, rather than dealing with the various repatriation issues that affect them.

From:
Modern Ghana

IS THE DECLARATION ON THE VALUE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE “UNIVERSAL MUSEUMS” NOW WORTHLESS?
By Kwame Opoku, Dr.

David Gill has posed the question whether the Declaration on the Value and Importance of Universal Museums should be considered as worthless in view of the fact that the main objective of providing immunity against restitution claims has not been achieved. With regard to the restitutions made by major US American institutions to Italy – Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Princeton University’s Art Museum .- he states:

“Such repatriations perhaps demonstrate the flawed thinking behind the “Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums”.
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Constantine Sandis looks back at the issue of the Parthenon Sculptures following the opening of the New Acropolis Museum. The New Acropolis Museum is compared to the British Museum’s concept of the universal museum, showing that both museums exhibit universalism, but in different forms. More importantly though, he asks whether both sides have lost site of the true issue of what is best for the sculptures.

From:
The Liberal

The New Acropolis
by Constantine Sandis

Dull is the eye that will not weep to see
Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed
By British hands, which it had best behoved,
To guard those relics ne’er to be restored.
Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto XV, 3-6.

Last summer, the New Acropolis Museum in Athens opened its gates, not only to the public but also to a flood of arguments and emotions old and new. The root cause of this commotion lies in the fact that nearly half of the sculptures which originally graced the Parthenon have been residing in the British Museum, ever since they were purchased from the bankrupt Lord Elgin in 1816. Numerous smaller fragments, it is often forgotten, are kept by other museums across Europe.
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Those living in the UK can not fail to have noticed the BBC’s ongoing series – the history of the world in one hundred objects, organised by British Museum director Neil MacGregor. This series due to run for much off 2010, promises to perpetuate his personal world view of the Universal Museum, while sidestepping the true nature of the debates surrounding many of the artefacts in his institution. There is an issue at stake here of how vast a mouthpiece the BBC has given him to expound his own views, without others being given a clear, proportional right of reply.

From:
Modern Ghana

A HISTORY OF THE WORLD WITH 100 LOOTED OBJECTS OF OTHERS: GLOBAL INTOXICATION?
By Kwame Opoku, Dr.

It is perhaps indicative of the cultural climate of our times that the British Museum and the BBC could announce a programme with a pretentious title such as “A History of the World in 100 Objects”. (2) A pretence to serving the whole world, a title which indicates a wider view but hides in fact the reality of frantic efforts to preserve the interests of a few in the guise of the so-called “universal museums” which have come under some heavy criticisms in recent years. The project appears to be aimed at diverting attention from the fact that the tide of history is moving against the illegitimate detention of the cultural objects of others. It is aimed at impressing the masses about the alleged indispensable role of the major museums and gathering support for their continuing possession that is tainted with illegality and illegitimacy. In the process, public interest for the museum would be stimulated and information about the objects as considered necessary would be produced.

The last few years have seen major Western museums being criticised for purchasing looted objects. Leading American museums and universities have been forced to return to Italy looted artefacts that had been bought by the museums, knowing full well that the objects could only have been looted. Indeed, an American curator is in jail in Italy, waiting for her trial for criminal offences in connection with acquisition of Italian artefacts for her museum in the USA. Moreover, Egypt has renewed its demands for the return of the Rosetta Stone, the bust of Nefertiti and other items that have been in major Western museums for several decades. The Greeks have constantly been reclaiming the return of the Parthenon/Elgin Marbles and the completion of the magnificent New Acropolis Museum has exposed the hollow British arguments for retaining the marbles. The British public has overwhelmingly voted in favour of returning the Parthenon/Elgin Marbles to Athens whenever a poll was made. We should also remember that the Nigerians who have never forgotten the brutal invasion of Benin in 1897 are seeking the return of some of the 5000 objects looted by the British troops in their bloody aggression against a kingdom that resisted British imperialist expansion and hegemonial endeavours.
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China is sending teams of experts to catalogue the Chinese artefacts in museums abroad. This raises the question though of why the Museums do not already have such records of their own – or if they do have them, why they are unwilling to share them.

From:
Modern Ghana

CHINESE RESEARCH ARTEFACTS LOOTED IN ANGLO-FRENCH ATTACK ON SUMMER PALACE IN 1860: DO “GREAT MUSEUMS” NOT KEEP RECORDS?
By Kwame Opoku, Dr.

“Two robbers breaking into a museum, devastating, looting and burning, leaving laughing hand-in-hand with their bags full of treasures; one of the robbers is called France and the other Britain.” Victor Hugo. (1)

China has announced its intention of sending groups of researchers to various museums in the West, especially France, Britain and United States, such as the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum to draw a list of the artefacts that were looted in 1860 during the Anglo-French invasion of Beijing, (then Peking).(2) Victor Hugo had expressed the wish and the hope that one day France and Britain would return the looted objects taken from an Asian country, thousands of miles away from France and Britain, that had been attacked because of its resistance to European imperialism. (3)
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As well as reiterating his requests for the return of the Rosetta Stone following the successful retrieval of artefacts from the Louvre, Zahi Hawass is also repeating his previously unsuccessful attempts to persuade Germany to send the bust of Nefertiti back to Egypt.

From:
Modern Ghana

HAWASS REQUESTS RETURN OF NEFERTITI, EGYPTIAN QUEEN HELD IN BERLIN, GERMANY
By Kwame Opoku, Dr.
Tue, 20 Oct 2009

We may not all agree with Zahi Hawass in many aspects of restitution but we cannot deny that the energetic Egyptian cultural activist has a perfect sense of timing and is, in many ways, a very sophisticated strategist that many countries would be well-served to possess.

He first requested from the French Egyptian artefacts for which the French were most probably not ready to fight for. With this initial victory, he reminded the British about his well-known demand for the Rosetta Stone. Before the British could react, he demanded from the Germans the return of the bust of Nefertiti, the Egyptian Queen, who has been kept in German sojourn since 1913 when the notorious German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt surreptitiously brought the bust to Germany under dubious circumstances which have not yet been completely clarified. Borchardt’s own words indicated that he was fully aware that he was taking the sculpture away from Egypt without the consent of the Egyptians or the authorities responsible for dividing archaeological finds between Egypt and the European archaeologists involved in excavation. (1)
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As anticipated, an announcement has been made that some of the Lewis Chessmen will return to Scotland. The British Museum has also used the announcement though to make it clear that they never intend on these artefacts to leave the institution permanently – if anything making their views on the subject clearer & more emphatic than before, falling back again on the justification of the widely discredited Universal Museum argument.

From:
Press and Journal

October 2, 2009
Lewis Chessmen go north — but they’re just visiting
Tom Maxwell

The Lewis Chessmen are being brought north for an important tour of Scotland after the SNP government said it would contribute £75,000 towards the costs of a new exhibition to be staged by the British Museum in London and the National Museum of Scotland.

Nationalist ministers remain committed to the long-term goal of bringing the 12th-century figures to Scotland on a permanent basis, and hope the exhibition will further that aim.
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