Mitsuzane Okauchi: Looted Cultural Property—Who Owns It?
[Mitsuzane Okauchi is Professor, Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences, at Waseda University.]
An international meeting in Cairo, Egypt concerning the “Return and Protection of Cultural Property” was held for two days from April 7-8, 2010. A total of 21 countries including South Korea, China, India, Greece, Italy, Syria, Egypt, and Peru participated in a discussion which pressed for the return of such famous antiquities as the bust of Queen Nefertiti and the Rosetta Stone.
When visiting Europe's World Heritage Sites and Museums, people invariably end up observing antiquities from Greece, Rome, and Egypt. Surprisingly, this is often the case with the smaller museums in the area. This is the result of accumulation of artifacts discovered since the onset of the Age of Exploration in the 16th century.
Currently, any artifacts obtained in a foreign country or by any means other than exhumation, exchange, donation, purchase, and the like are required under a UNESCO treaty to be returned to their country of origin. After contemplating the damage done to cultural property in World War II, the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict was proposed in May of that year. Thereafter, theft, illegal digging, plunder and other unjust or unfair methods of obtaining artifacts through illegal business transactions were banned by a 1970 treaty. With regard to cultural and natural heritage sources, the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted in 1972....
Read entire article at The Daily Yomiuri (Japan)
An international meeting in Cairo, Egypt concerning the “Return and Protection of Cultural Property” was held for two days from April 7-8, 2010. A total of 21 countries including South Korea, China, India, Greece, Italy, Syria, Egypt, and Peru participated in a discussion which pressed for the return of such famous antiquities as the bust of Queen Nefertiti and the Rosetta Stone.
When visiting Europe's World Heritage Sites and Museums, people invariably end up observing antiquities from Greece, Rome, and Egypt. Surprisingly, this is often the case with the smaller museums in the area. This is the result of accumulation of artifacts discovered since the onset of the Age of Exploration in the 16th century.
Currently, any artifacts obtained in a foreign country or by any means other than exhumation, exchange, donation, purchase, and the like are required under a UNESCO treaty to be returned to their country of origin. After contemplating the damage done to cultural property in World War II, the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict was proposed in May of that year. Thereafter, theft, illegal digging, plunder and other unjust or unfair methods of obtaining artifacts through illegal business transactions were banned by a 1970 treaty. With regard to cultural and natural heritage sources, the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted in 1972....