tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972497915033440413.post1255907326930170011..comments2024-03-20T18:15:41.858+00:00Comments on Looting Matters: Setting high ethical standards for collecting antiquitiesDavid Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13164794689385933318noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972497915033440413.post-58832203835132588862017-01-27T21:16:01.020+00:002017-01-27T21:16:01.020+00:00We share entirely the view that a museum has an ob...We share entirely the view that a museum has an obligation to return artefacts in its collection which are undoubtedly looted or stolen. However, apart from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, we do not have many examples of Western museums voluntarily returning looted or stolen artefacts to their countries of origin. Can we hope that Western museums will ever accept that keeping looted or stolen objects cannot be considered as good behaviour for respected institutions? Can we hope that the positions taken by Phillipe de Montebello, James Cuno, Neil MacGregor and others, will be seen as what they were: attempts to justify the unjustifiable looting of artefacts of others and in some cases- Asante, Beijing, Benin, Ethiopia- with incredible violence?<br />There should be no attempts to introduce some form of limitation of actions or time limits in a matter where morality sets no limits. Once there is abundant evidence that an artefact in its collection has been looted or stolen, a respectable museum should seek contact with the owners to arrive at some acceptable settlement. We should avoid the unseemly situation where the history books all concur that certain items, such as the Benin bronzes, have been looted and yet the museum deploys several baseless arguments for not returning the object. Morality cannot be subject to convenient time limits as western museums and their supporters have so far been trying.<br />Kwame Opoku.<br />DR.KWAME OPOKUhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10807521316037049823noreply@blogger.com