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Should all the artifacts in the British Museum be returned?

Posted by Diligent-Spread-3699@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 31 comments

The title. Been thinking about this a lot lately, as i grow up in Spain as a kid of Pakistani (punjabi) parents.

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31 Comments

Xaavuza@reddit

The vast majority of objects in the british museum are from Britain.
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Diligent-Spread-3699@reddit (OP)

No. Only a minority are actually from Britain.
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Xaavuza@reddit

How many artefacts in the British Museum are actually British? https://share.google/Bg2Mi8QkXvu0eRAqt England is the single British contributor of objects in the museum.
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Andi-anna@reddit

I think it depends on how they were acquired. If it was legitimately, then keep them. If not, and the country it would be returned to has been peaceful for a while, does not have a dubious govt etc, then return it.
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JavaRuby2000@reddit

Not all but, some yes.
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Silencer95@reddit

Nope. A lot would definitely be destroyed if sent back to some of war torn nations they were from. Look at what Islamic terror groups have done to some of their own countries ancient sites. They blew them up. People can complain all they want about the British Museum, but we do preserve a lot of the world’s history. History that a lot of people didn’t even care to preserve to begin with.
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Diligent-Spread-3699@reddit (OP)

Yeah, but who was who encouraged the wars in Pakistan and India for example? I acknowledge that the Indian Subcontinent was already divided when the Brits came. I love British culture, but for example the Koh-i-noor diamond was given to the Royal Family in the Treaty of Lahore because Singh, the prince who owned was 10 and was held as a prisoner of war.
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escapingfromelba@reddit

The premise of your question is badly flawed, but even if true it doesn't actually change the problem. I recommend the Empire podcast about the diamond as it's ownership has changed many times so there's multiple claims on it plus each nation in the region often tells myths that people believe.
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ActionBirbie@reddit

You get prizes from winning things, of course - War is no different. Why not go the whole hog and ask for Olympic medals to be returned?
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GuybrushFunkwood@reddit

Nope we snaffled it fair and square
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escapingfromelba@reddit

I've never seen a good case that they should be, it comes down to a fad that will pass in time and one that doesn't even stand up as many things have passed through multiple hands over time too. In many ways the artifacts have value (financial or cultural) because a place so prestigious decided to hold them in effect making them famous.
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FornyHucker22@reddit

Nope. that was easy
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spectator_mail_boy@reddit

I used to think no. But after all the constant whining, the non stop "hot takes", the countries angry over it... I say just chuck the lot of it. Just put them all on planes. If there's a warlord, dictator or some other group currently in charge of the location an item is going to and will destroy it, then so be it. I do not care one bit. Let the Guardian readers have their glory!
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Master-Trick2850@reddit

The Rosetta stone belongs to Afghanistan, which is currently ruled by the Taliban Imagine the reaction if the British Museum actually returned it
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Remote_Sun_2017@reddit

Yeah why not. It'll make something to read about.
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MatteKudesai@reddit

It's trendy to single out the British Museum for some reason. But think about it a bit more, and you'll realize that the resources necessary to dig out, label, conserve, and then preserve (with the uninterrupted infrastructure heating, lighting, security, air conditioning and temperature control) a vast amount of material culture that is significant for our current and future civilization takes more then repatriating 'stuff'. There are important museums all around the world, not just the BM, all working to save fragile artifacts. And if there is an earthquake, terrorism, civil war, any kind of disaster, having items kept in safe places is important for generations of citizens globally. There are excellent museums that do this all over the world, world-class museums in Western Europe, North America, but also beyond: I've been to excellent museums of indigenous peoples in Mexico and Chile, and archaeological museums in Greece, Egypt, and India that also do this important work. So the BM is only one of a number of sites around the world, it just happens to have a huge collection (because, yes, empire, but wasn't the only empire). Tl;dr the work of cultural preservation is simply too important to simply 'send back', consider a more global perspective for future generations. Sorry if the above reads as patronizing, but as I get older I worry more and more about the loss of potentially significant cultural artifacts from around the world. Even the humblest clay pots tell us about trade routes, the levels of relative wealth of a group, what foods and drinks people had access to, etc etc. I'm not an archaeologist but I do find all this fascinating.
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Cyanopicacooki@reddit

Yes. Next question.
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Broad-Section-8310@reddit

Used to be in the firm yes camp (I also come from a country which used to be colonised and plundered), but been a lot more nuanced since a while ago: nearly half of S Korea's national treasures in the 1950s were blown up when an artillery shell hit bulls-eye on a hidden underground storage during its civil war. Then we have seen what happened when Egypt went through the Arab Spring. It is not like the British Museum or the Louvre are that safe either (given large-scale thefts in both the past two years), but at least they are not being blown up beyond repair. What should happen though, is for the museums to be open about how the artefacts were brought in and cooperate with local archaeologists/historians as much as possible. Their current location matters much less than their context at the place they were discovered, and the whole ~~plundering~~ importing process itself is a worthwhile history of its own.
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Shawn_The_Sheep777@reddit

Why is the British museum always singled out? I went to one in Berlin that had half of Syria in it.
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Diligent-Spread-3699@reddit (OP)

I mean, the British Empire is the largest colonial empire in history.
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Shawn_The_Sheep777@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/m8oakyt8v6rg1.jpeg?width=1800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae69271b3cce86b2244452b9fbf8dc466c4595f6 It was the Pergammon museum which includes the Ishtar gate.
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Master-Trick2850@reddit

And the other half of Syria has been quite literally blown up 
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Statikfuzz@reddit

Yep, if the site of origin wants them back and it's safe to do so
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Fullchimp@reddit

All of them? No. Case-by-case? I think so, just for a laugh if nothing else. It mostly wont be beneficial to wherever they’re going back to as they’ll be stolen from the people. There’s no where safer, frankly. There are 8 million objects in there, I can’t comment on them all, the Elgin marbles for example would be better off at home.
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Neddlings55@reddit

No. Artefacts need to be preserved. They should be also be available for all to view. Returning them (despite the origins of many being unknown and the subject of great debate and argument) could put them at risk of destruction or simply being viewed as an asset to be purchased by some billionaire and then hidden away.
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El_Bastardo_Grande@reddit

Personally I think they should be returned, it would be really good soft power and help rebuild relationships. But accurate 1:1 replicas should be made before they are returned. But I think there's laws that say Britain stole them fair and square and can't return them.
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Master-Trick2850@reddit

"really good soft power" 😂
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MercatorLondon@reddit

# Should all the artifacts in the every Museum in every country be returned?
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Plastic-Stable-7679@reddit

No. Leave our things alone. Foreigner
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DI-whyy@reddit

Do you think the same for all museum collections?
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