why all countries are keeping all the greek ancient artifacts and they dont return them to Greece?

Question

UK, France, Germany, Italy, Balkans, Turkey, they all possess greek artifacts that are supposed to be displayed at a greek museum instead they are making profit and creating tourism and extra revenue for them, they dont treat them right they corrode them with their own closemindedness, they refuse to give them for the only reason of: << Why Greece to have all the good fancy toys(all technological advancements- i.e Parthenon and all these super advance technological machines) and all the good statues and artifacts?>>Ahmm maybe because they are greek? maybe because they are original and world known as greek? enough, is enough give them back with interest, and backdated, greece should also charge rental fees, keepers fees, surcharges of interest above the astronomical amount of money the countries owe to Greece, they are the super power. their language is also the basis of almost all languages, what if they decide to charge royalties for every word we use andits theirs?

Answer 1

Possession is nine -tenths of the law. The artifacts are worth a great deal of money. So greed plays a large part in it.

Answer 2

The Elgin marbles are perhaps one of the most famous cases. Where Lord Elgin saw the damage and looting already done to the Parthenon and saw fit to protect large sections of the Frieze, pediments and metope sculptures by shipping then back to the UK and placing them in the British mueseum for the world to see and admire.
The Greek government as part of the campaign, is building the New Acropolis Museum, designed by the Swiss/American architect Bernard Tschumi, designed to hold the Parthenon sculptures arranged in the same way as they would have been on the Parthenon. It is intended to leave the spaces for the Elgin Marbles empty, rather than using casts in these positions, as a reminder to visitors of the fact that parts are held in other museums.
The British muesum's main points are: the maintenance of a single worldwide-oriented cultural collection, all viewable in one location, thereby serving as a world heritage center; the saving of the marbles from what would have been, or would be, pollution and other damage if relocated back to Athens; and a legal position that the museum is banned by charter from returning any part of its collection
I use this as an example purely to illustrate a point that some arguments stand up better than others depending on who you have the greatest stmpathy for. My opinion is let the artifacts go back to the country they came from. At the emd of the day that's where they belong, it is a part of that country's history and it is the individual responsability of that country to look after it's history as it sees fit.

Answer 3

Simply put, you may or may not know this, Greece is paid by these countries for them to display them in their museum's, these countries don't keep the majority of the revenue that is received for the artifacts, what isn't used for restoration and upkeep, is given back to the Greek government.

The same thing is done with the French, Italian, and Egyptian nations also, with whichever nation holds the artifact.

Answer 4

You have to remember that in the past "old things" were considered of little value except for educated people and many artifacts were sold to anyone who showed an interest, for cash to acquire other things that were of more value in the eyes of the natives that sold them. Most of the objects which are held in museums have proven sources and have been acquired or bequeathed honestly.It is only relatively recently that Greece and other countries which have a very long history started valuing their ruins and ancient artifacts or objects.Often such objects would not have been preserved or saved if they had not been bought by connoisseurs in the past.
You obviously are thinking of the Elgin marbles, which were really bought by Lord Elgin from what was tantamount to a heap of rubble, then donated to the British Museum. I do not think Greece wants ALL the artifacts back but they would like the marbles to be given back to them because they are part of their most cherished ruins in Athens.There are several countries who also would like to get back paintings or objects that are important to their cultural heritage and which are held in the museums of other nations.Obviously the countries that have cared for them along the years are not very happy at the idea of giving them away, even if it is to the nation that they originated from.
Think of it this way: If your ancestor had travelled far away either in his line of business or as a tourist and, in the course of his travels, he had bought an object that was passed down the family, cared for by your relatives and then ended up in your living room, would you be willing to give it to someone who said "This comes from my country, give it to me!"?

Answer 5

finders keepers-knowledge that was used to deciphers what was taken is the heritage of all in the world if u want to give it back buy it and do what u want but real men don't become lost just because Indiana Jones and the last crusades were based on a boy scout trying to put a Private find in a museum it just doesn't give me a guilt trip, there wouldn't be any Egyptian archeology if it wasn't for American investments and we should never let people who want to sway people get to a format like this and gather force to undo what was a great effort to show these countries had a beginning so they could take pride in themselves and now u want to give them an ego trip that were stealing from them, they couldn't feed themselves one hundred years ago when we were doing this intense study of bring to light what was the biblical world to the intellectuals not the bitching people who would not understand the undertaking to establish truth would be the mill stone in it self around those who did this for the benefit of mankind not status seeking hosts of they origins in their own wastes, look at the Iraq's treasures that ended up looted as they were in the country of wars and were not preserved in any form other than still standing in the same debris that they were found in, the city of Ur is not available to our public it was left to be looted in the middle east so what the world gain by putting these treasures back in jeopardy

Answer 6

I am with you guy, that is true they should have a museum for their own artifacts you should work on that. Write the Greek government and find out more about how to do it. I am sure we would all go for that. I believe that the Gaza strip should be returned to Israel too but a lot of good that will do. Most of the time you will find that those artifacts were either sold or spoils of War. But in the case of the Gaza Strip Israel won it but gave it to the Palestinians for free. Funny huh? What about the bust of Nefertiti? That sits in a French museum the Louvre.

Answer 7

Long story here....
So I'll be brief.....

The methodology of the times when most of these artifacts were 'discovered' (some would say plundered) was basically 'finders-keepers'.

Most people will tell you that Egypt lost more of its national history than any other country. But those people are also not Native Americans..... our history is dug up frequently as a "history project" and sometimes the ground is not even covered back up over our burial sites.

Answer 8

I suppose its which side you look at it from From a Greek perspective they have the high ground and i can understand their point of view. from the museums side most paid good money for them and view them as paid for and as you say would lose a valuable;e commodity after all if they gave back all there artifacts to the country of there origin there would be no point of them being there anymore and would have to close . Now that i would have issue with, as a child most of my understanding of the worlds culture came from spending many fascinating hours , days, years , learning and soaking up knowledge . if all the artifacts and abjects were in another country . were would all our up and coming children acquire knowledge from , If like me they came from a poor working class family. After all the Greeks were not to worried about them until they saw other countries profiting from them

Answer 9

If you are a U.S. citizen would you be able to travel to Greece to see said artifacts. A bad example-- okay, a lot of major diggers are funded by countries other than where they are digging. And if they aren't ;countries other than where artifacts are found often pay the highest dollar. Indian Jones is not completely make-believe.

Answer 10

Greece is people that are looking forward. See their performance in Euro 2004 and Olympics. What the **** of keeping those ancient artifacts? Only the British keeps rubbish old things?