something_facetious t1_ir3eb7k wrote on October 5, 2022 at 1:07 AM

Reply to comment by sunny0_0 in Hercules statue, approximately 2,000 years old, discovered in Greece - The Jerusalem Post by DRKILLM0NGER

I'm of the opinion that everything should be returned, unless a country/culture asks that another country keep it safe for them because of times of instability or what have you. But if it gets returned and then gets destroyed... it was always theirs to preserve or destroy. Is it a tremendous loss? Yes, but such is the way of human history.

Jordan_the_Hutt t1_ir52l1v wrote on October 5, 2022 at 12:14 PM

That's a valid argument. I think what we need is a multinational museum collective that owns and loans a large number of antiquities. It would be horrible to live in a world where no museum has any significant foreign objects. So for example the met could donate 1 piece to the collective which would entitle then to one loan. They then apply to take out a specific piece, and it gets moved to the Met for 1 year. Country of origin always moves to the top of the list for taking out there own pieces.

A system like this would alow people all over the world to continue to be inspired by foreign artifacts while still not depriving the country of origin from seeing those artifacts. Of course this is not a perfect system, many artifacts should simply be returned to their country if origins and there would be a lot of details to work out but with growing globalization I do think it's important for artifacts of world history to be available to the world.

something_facetious t1_ir5e2rc wrote on October 5, 2022 at 1:47 PM

Yes, I agree that would be a good system. Museums lend things to each other all the time and they get money in exchange. Wouldn't it be better if that money went to the artifacts' country of origin?

I think we should offer to repatriate everything, and if those countries can't afford to preserve those items and would like help, there should be a trust set up by the museum where they're being displayed and a percentage of ticket sales should go into that trust. Then the trust could be used to cover the cost of building a facility/museum in the artifacts' home country so they can be safely returned.

It breaks my heart that people are being deprived of the experience of seeing important pieces of their own cultural history. That should be the priority, in my opinion.