Ancient Artifacts in European Museums
The Debate Over Looted Art and National Treasures
Where does the traveler go so see the famous bust of Egypt’s Queen Nefertiti? Most would answer Cairo, supposing that this would be the logical repository for such a rare and exquisite artifact. Yet Nefertiti’s bust is displayed in a Berlin Museum.
The Fate of Looted Artifacts
The debate over “looted” artifacts from ancient civilizations began even as many of those items were carted to European museums during the 19th Century period of Imperialism. Both amateur and credentialed archaeologists enriched western capitals and often themselves in the process. Amateur Heinrich Schliemann provided historians a great service by locating the ancient city of Troy, yet made off with many of its treasures. To see the famous Elgin Marbles that once adorned the Parthenon complex on the Acropolis in Athens, the visitor must go the British Museum in London. This is also the repository of the Rosetta Stone.
The Elgin Marbles have presented one of the bitterest struggles between a nation that claims it as a national treasure and another that legitimizes ownership on the basis of the right of possession. As one guide in the British Museum put it, “we paid for it.” The museum has long maintained that Athens has not provided a safe and adequate building to display the marble reliefs. The government of Greece, however, has recently completed construction of a climate-controlled facility that will properly display the sculptures. Yet the British Museum will have none of it and continues to resist returning the artifacts.
Attempts to Preserve National Treasures
Despite the many examples of archaeological exploitation, there were men of honor. Sir Arthur Evans spent much of life and fortune bringing to light the fabled Minoan palace of Knossos in Crete, without transferring important artifacts abroad. However, such examples are rare. Few European and American museums are without the guilt of displaying artifacts that were ill-gotten. The Code of Hammurabi, certainly one of the earliest codifications of Near Eastern law in Ancient History, is displayed in the Louvre in Paris.
The United States and the Debate over Artifacts
American institutions are not immune to charges of looted artifacts. National museums, universities, and private collectors have amassed thousands of examples of ancient Indian artifacts. Mesoamerican and Incan artifacts, often brought north by professors and professional hunters of such commodities looking at the profit angle, fill galleries and museums. Too often, the governments seeking to reclaim lost treasures lack clout and power to force the relinquishing of national treasures.
A Russian tour guide in the Kremlin Armory Museum once asked an American student visitor how he would feel if the Kremlin obtained and displayed an original copy of the U.S. Constitution. The question came after a discussion of Imperial Era Faberge Eggs, some of which are privately held by collectors outside of Russia.
The question of permanent ownership of historical artifacts becomes more important as under-developed and lesser-developed nations seek to define an historical heritage. How the West responds will be a measure of the desire to promote nation-building and the nurturing of stable societies seeking to incorporate heritage into a framework of national identity.
Sources:
Author’s personal visits to the museums noted in the article as well as visits to the Acropolis in Athens.
See article on Nefertiti’s bust.
Ruins of Knossos in Crete
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