Disputed Artifacts Essay Example

The Rosetta Stone, Easter Island Sculptures, and Statues from the Parthenon: What do all of these priceless artifacts have in common? They've all been stolen, looted, and are under harsh debate about whether they should be returned to their rightful owners. Unfortunately, the extent of these stolen artifacts goes far beyond just these previously mentioned items, modern day museums have more stolen artifacts than ever before, and Plundered art and antiquities trade to the tune of at least $3 billion a year, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Visitors to museums must understand that many of the artifacts and paintings they view have disputed ownership and have their own cultural and historical importance. Transition sentence 

When a museum or reputable organization claims that an artifact has disputed ownership, it doesn't just mean the artifact is stolen; rather, it means it was taken from its original owner unlawfully. For example, in 1816, the British Museum purchased a set of ancient Greek marble sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens for £35,000 (about $4.8 million today). Since the 1802 excavation of these sculptures was overseen by a Scottish lord instead of a Greek representative, the items are considered to have disputed ownership. It can be difficult to determine whether an artifact has disputed ownership as it is determined by both international law and the native country's law. The fact that many western museums are filled with mainly artifacts with disputed ownership is a larger problem than it might seem. The question being: is it still okay for these museums to hold more disputed artifacts and artifacts from all around the world than artifacts from their home country?

Of the many disputed museums, one of the most infamous is the British Museum.

The British Museum, created by Sir Hans Sloane, first opened its doors in 1753. With the help of the British government, the museum quickly transformed into the largest world history museum in the world. The museum started with just a few of Sir Hans Sloane's personally owned artifacts and now holds more than 8 million cultural and historical artifacts which cover over 2 million years of history. In the marketing for the museum, it points out its 12-star pieces, but when looking closer at these items, one might notice a problem hidden within the museum. Out of the 12 most popular artifacts in the museum, nearly half have disputed ownership, yet the British Museum sticks by their previous statements and believes that these artifacts belong to the museum for the world to see. The British Museum, since its founding, has always had strong ties to the British Empire and monarchy. As the British Empire grew and expanded into foreign countries, many believed it was their right to take precious religious artifacts back to their homeland, where most ended up in the British Museum. For the British Museum to keep these items is a direct statement to the countries of origin of these artifacts that they believe the hundreds of years of colonization,  were justified as long as the museum continues to profit off of them. 

One of the most infamous examples of the British Empire looting and stealing artifacts started in 1885 during the "Scramble for Africa". The Scramble for Africa started in the early 1880s when many European countries expanded into Africa in search of resources, land, and other fundamental goods. As most of the European countries expanded, they found the need to set up "Spheres of Influence". Spheres of influence was an idea originally proposed in the 1820s by Alexander Hamilton and was later used in the Scramble for Africa as a way of splitting up the land and resources of Africa into numerous European colinies.  One of the most volatile relationships between colonie and kingdom was the British Empire and  the Kingdom of Benin.