Should Antiquities Be Repatriated?
Antiques and historical artifacts form a very important aspect of a country’s history. There is a great deal of controversy surrounding the return of certain artifacts. Essentially, the person or party to whom an item rightly belongs to should be given their property (Gerstenblith 22). It might be easy to assume that the antiquities should be returned to their place of origin. However, before we can determine whether antiques should be returned or not, it is important to ask who really owns the antiquity? There are many arguments that have been advanced on the ownership of historical artifacts.
Some people argue that they belong to the country of their origin and should antiques should be returned to their homeland where they can be identified with their culture (Ede 6). However, others argue that museums bought the pieces of art and should retain them.The debate rages on and it is difficult to decide who is right or what should be done. To solve this problem, it may be necessary to examine various factors such as the provenance of the antiquity and the infrastructure the parent country has to effectively take care of the art pieces. Other issues affecting the return of artifacts are political and international laws that govern the ownership of antiques and historical artifacts (Ulph, Smith, and Tugendhat 22).In this paper, we will examine historical cases of how the issue of ownership was determined and the ethics of what is the moral action to take. Among the countries that shave had the problem on the ownership of antiquities is China. During World War II, most of the art pieces in the countries were lost from the museums in the country. However, after the war, issues of repatriation arose as different cultures claimed their antiquities to be returned. It is important to find the correct course of action to be taken to solve the current issues and prevent future conflicts.
History of Countries and Antiquities
It is sometimes necessary to consider the history of antiquities and their countries in order to make an informed decision. One of the most affected countries by lost or destroyed cultural artifacts is China. During World War II, many items were looted from Chinese museums, especially during the raid by the Japanese (Scott 54). A large number of the items were later secretly transported to the United States while others were lost, never to be found again. In 1966, over 200 students from the Beijing Normal University travelled to the temple of Confucius with the aim of demolishing it (Scott 55). Though temple still stands, over 6000 cultural items were destroyed. Over 5000 years of cultural history was lost. Such incidences show how cultural items may be insecure in their own countries of origin and prompt safekeeping in foreign museums. Even though the Chinese may claim ownership of their antiquities, the past history makes one doubt whether they will be safe or another group may come up …