Thursday, June 02, 2011

Rachel Hallote on repatriation of antiquities

THE REPATRIATION-OF-ANTIQUITIES DEBATE CONTINUES:
Archaeological Views: A Case Against the Repatriation of Archaeological Artifacts

By Rachel Hallote (BAR)

When I proposed a column to BAR editor Hershel Shanks on the issue of repatriation of artifacts to the country of origin, he said it was not something that engaged him. It didn’t matter to him, he said, where an artifact was located as long as it was available to scholars to examine and study, and was available to the public to see and appreciate. But Hershel is wrong. There is more to it than this. The real problem with repatriating artifacts is the sacrifice of one country’s history for the sake of another.

[...]
I maintain my default position that ancient artifacts are the treasures of humanity and should be kept where they are safest and best cared for. Nationalist considerations are secondary, but at that secondary level Dr. Hallote raises some interesting points.

Related (evidently in more ways than one) post here.