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Who is the true owner of antiquities?


The on-going tussle between the Brits and the Greeks about the return from the British Museum of the Elgin Marbles continues to rage - with no sign of any resolution.

Of course one country holding on to the artifacts or historical things of another is not new, nor the resistance to return the item held. With the opening of another landmark museum in Berlin, a dispute has broken out between Egypt and Germany, as The NY Times reports in "When Ancient Artifacts Become Political Pawns":

"As thousands lined up to catch a glimpse of Nefertiti at the newly reopened Neues Museum here, another skirmish erupted in the culture wars. Egypt’s chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, announced that his country wanted its queen handed back forthwith, unless Germany could prove that the 3,500-year-old bust of Akhenaten’s wife wasn’t spirited illegally out of Egypt nearly a century ago.

“We’re not treasure hunters,” Mr. Hawass told Spiegel Online. “If it’s proven clearly that the work was not stolen,” he said. “there shouldn’t be any problem.”

Then he said he was sure the work had been stolen.

Globalization, it turns out, has only intensified, not diminished, cultural differences among nations. The forces of nationalism love to exploit culture because it’s symbolic, economically potent and couches identity politics in a legal context that tends to pit David against Goliath."

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