Should antique Egyptian artifacts be returned to Egypt so that the Egyptians can see them.?

Question

I just saw a show on National Geographic. The Egyptians are wanting the nations outside of Egypt that have artificats and mummies return them to Egypt. Q1 - should the nations return them to Egypt? Q2 - If they are return should they just be viewed or should they be returned after a few months.

The problem as I see it is that the "stolen" artificats are not in Egypt. Egypt wants them back. USA has quite a collection of Egyptians artifacts. Should America return them to Egypt.

Answer 1

In my opinion, and also partly from a legal point of view:
Artifacts "stolen or sold" from Egypt AFTER the 1983 counter-smuggling law should be return to Egypt permanently.
Artifacts "stolen or sold" from Egypt BEFORE the 1983 counter-smuggling law should be exhibited in Egypt from time to time as per the government's request.
Artifacts "gifted" before the law's application should be exhibited voluntarily in Egypt, if the owner accepts, or as per negotiation.
The problem is some Egyptian rulers donated some artifacts as if their private properties.

Answer 2

I think the problem has always been that there is a fear that some of these antiquities will be stolen or fall in the hands of private collectors or destryoed by religious fundamentalists.

I think what Egypt should do is lease out the exhibits for a period of time to other museums. They still have the valley of the kings and the pyramids to draw tourism into the country so long as they can work on security at these sites, of course.

Answer 3

properly Reiko, i have not in any respect been to Egypt so what i learn about that is what we see in the media and certain I truly may opt to visit in the destiny the land that has seen the beginning of this variety of vast quantity of civilizations. about the Egyptians, I actually have an really close Egyptian buddy the following and that i love her dearly, although the reality is that you, Hasafer, Kalooka, Farah, Ouffa and all the different occasional travellers were such astounding those that you've made the merely excellent ambassadors on your u . s . a .. So if some thing else of the Egyptians are 0.5 as humorous / reliable lively / reliable hearted throughout astounding human beings i'm bought. As for the kinfolk between both international places, i imagine that artistically we are doing large and replacing artists very efficiently. As for politically, we are in this variety of mess for the instant we may extra acceptable fix our inner relationships beforehand searching on the exterior ones.

Answer 4

I think they should stay where they are. Egypt may seem like a stable country now, but who knows where it will be in 100 years. Same with The USA, France and Great Britain, all countries who have large collections. By having the works spread out over the world it's kind of like not having all your eggs in one basket. Yea it sucks for Egypt, but it works out for the rest of the world. Look at the giant Buddhas in Afghanistan. OH! Wait you can't look at them anymore because the Taliban blew them up. Sarcasm aside, we don't know what's going to happen in the future and it would be nice if some of the artwork survived future catastrophes.

Answer 5

Yes! All the artifacts should be return to the countries of their origin!
Don't forget that Egypt (Greece, some parts of Italy, and a lot of middle east countries) have been looted in the last centuries, especially from
invading armies and foreigner looters who moved around those land stilling anything that felt in their hands!
(especially British such as lord Elgin who looted Parthenon and a lot French and Germans)

Answer 6

This isn't an issue as simple as just gathering up all the items that originated in Egypt and sending them back home.
First, not all the Egyptian antiquities on display or in the holdings of various museums were "stolen." In many cases these items were excavated with the permission of the Egyptian government as it existed at the time at the expense of the museum or research institution. Standard practice for most of the late 19th and early 20th centuries has been for foreign missions to excavate in Egpt, paying all their own expenses and, in return, receiving a share of the finds at the end of each season after the finds had been examined and a selection chosen to stay in Egypt. This is no longer the practice, and no distribution of finds is made. In fact, it's extraordinarily difficult to take even minor objects or samples out of Egypt for laboratory testing for brief periods of time. While times have changed, and there are potential arguments to be made about the legality of such permission when Egypt was essentially a "shadow colony" of Britain and/or France, the fact remains, the legal government of Egypt in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries granted permission for artifacts to be excavated and taken out of Egypt and, for many years, turned a blind eye to looting and sale of artifacts without even the virtue of controlled excavation.

For the time being, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) in Egypt, currently headed by Dr. Zahi Hawass, is not demanding that those sorts of items be returned to Egypt. What the SCA does want returned are items that are of great historic interest, particularly unique, and/or items that were removed from Egypt illegally after regulations changed or that were removed from Egypt under false pretenses. The most famous examples right now include:
The Rosetta Stone, currently in the British Museum, where it has resided since the British relieved the French of it after Napoleon's forces were defeated (for reasons of historic importance as well as questionable legality).
The bust of Nefertiti, currently held by the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. The bust was excavated by a German team of archaeologists working at the site of Tell el-Amarna. The story goes that the Germans realized what a marvelous find they had had and, when the officials from the Egyptian Antiquities Service (as the SCA was called then) came to decide on the distribution of finds at the end of the field season, the Germans hid the bust, or disguised it and thus were able to get it as part of their distribution.

Now, complicating this whole issue is the fact that foreign (ie. non-Egyptian) museums have spent massive quantities of money over the past century or more not only collecting, but conserving and studying these artifacts and making them available for study to other scholars. These institutions have climate control, teams of conservators, and enthusiastic patrons and donors who support maintenance of the collection. While the Egyptian government is taking steps to increase the storage space and the quality of that storage space for artifacts, progress is going rather slowly, and economic concerns are paramount - there simply isn't enough money in Egypt to build the sorts of museums most professionals would consider adequate to house many antiquities. Various foreign nations are contributing, the current Tut exhibit is supposed to be contributing, etc., but it's still an enormous undertaking. Even now, the main Egyptian Museum in Cairo has no climate control in the majority of the galleries (the exceptions being the Tut rooms and the royal mummy rooms) and there isn't room for storage of more artifacts there. Instead, there are storage magazines used to store recently excavated items. Such magazines are usually fairly simple mudbrick or cement block structures, also without climate control, and often left unguarded (thus leading to potential theft). So there's the question then, if ALL objects are going to be returned is that really what's best? Is it fair? Is it strictly legal?

Answer 7

I believe they should not be returned. When a lot of ancient relics were discovered in various countries such as Egypt and Greece, the native countries could have given a fig what happened to them and had no capacity to deal with their restoration. There is the technology available in these countries now and they are more caring in regard to their heritage. But sorry no, museums should keep what they have.

Answer 8

Yes i agree a hundred percent they should be returned and then rented like most priceless artifacts should be. I am Nigerian and the British have over 1,000 artifacts that rightly belong to my country. While we do have some originals it is still not fair.

Answer 9

i was just thinking about this the otherday.. i believe that we should not touch anything from ancient egypt, they had strong beliefs about afterlife. we are disturbing thier peace for our own curiosity, what if there really is and after life, none of the tombs are very peacefull anymore