UK to return looted royal regalia to Ghana in loan deal
London, UK Reuters Britain is returning a selection of Ghanaian gold regalia looted from an Asante king in the 19th century, in a historic loan deal set out on Thursday. Some 32 objects, including a gold peace pipe and a sword of state from London’s British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum, will be loaned […]
British Museum to fully digitise collection after ‘inside job’ thefts
London, UKReuters The British Museum plans to digitise its entire collection, citing the need to secure public access to its vast catalogue after it reported in August that 2,000 artefacts had been stolen or were missing. The museum, one of the most visited in the world, has been dealing with the aftermath of the thefts, which highlighted internal […]
Please return if found: British Museum seeks help to recover missing treasures
London, UKReuters The British Museum launched a public hotline on Tuesday asking for help to locate some 2,000 missing artefacts, revealing they were mostly ancient Greek and Roman gems and jewellery. The museum said last month it had sacked a staff member over stolen, missing or damaged items in a crisis that highlighted internal failings […]
Parthenon Marbles return possible without ownership accord, campaigners say
London, UK Reuters The return of the British Museum’s Parthenon Marbles to Greece is possible even if the two sides cannot come to an agreement over who owns the sculptures, a campaign group working to resolve the long-standing dispute said on Sunday. Greece has asked for others to imitate the Vatican Museums after they agreed […]
Greece asks others to ‘imitate’ Vatican return of Parthenon pieces
Vatican City Reuters The Vatican Museums gave Greece three 2,500-year-old pieces of the Parthenon on Tuesday and the Greek side said the gesture should be imitated by others, a likely reference to a collection of sculptures from the ancient temple that are held by Britain. The fragments have been in the papal collections of the […]
Egypt calls for return of Rosetta Stone 200 years after it was deciphered
Cairo, Egypt Reuters Prominent Egyptian archaeologists have renewed a call for the return of the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum to Egypt, 200 years after the deciphering of the slab unlocked the secrets of hieroglyphic script and marked the birth of Egyptology. The archaeologists’ online campaign has gathered 2,500 signatures so far and aims […]
Nigeria’s looted Benin bronzes returned, more than a century later
Benin City, Nigeria Reuters Two Benin bronzes were returned on Saturday to a traditional palace in Nigeria, more than a century after they were pillaged by British troops, raising hopes that thousands more artefacts could finally be returned to their ancestral home. The artefacts, mostly in Europe, were stolen by explorers and colonisers from the […]
Parthenon fragment returns to Greece, rekindling campaign for UK to hand over marbles
Athens, GreeceReuters A marble fragment of the Parthenon temple has been returned to Athens from a museum in Sicily, a move officials hope will advance efforts to have the British Museum send back ancient sculptures from Greece’s most renowned ancient landmark. Athens’ Acropolis Museum presented on Monday the “Fagan fragment”, a 35-by-31-centimetre marble fragment showing the […]
After a century-and-a-half, Ethiopian artefacts return home
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Reuters After a century-and-a-half hidden in private collections, 13 stolen Ethiopian artefacts have finally returned home following months of negotiations. “Our country’s ancient civilisation’s history, artefacts, fingerprints of indigenous knowledge, culture…have been looted in war and smuggled out illegally,” said Ethiopia’s tourism minister, Nasise Challa. Artefacts that were looted during the colonial-era […]
Greece wants dialogue with UK for return of Parthenon sculptures
Athens, Greece Reuters Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday that the Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum should be returned to Athens and called for talks with Britain to achieve that aim. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in March that Britain is the legitimate owner of the Parthenon marbles, rebuffing Greece’s permanent request […]