News

“Would be nice to have a more frank discussion about how objects are collected for the Museum. Saying ‘Donated’ is not enough”

Last week, a delegation of Naga people signed a declaration that will lead to the return of 41 Naga ancestral remains currently held in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford

Village leaders at San Benito Poité in southern Belize, formerly British Honduras, are claiming that an important collection of artefacts removed from the ancient city of Pusilha is not the lawful property of the British Museum

Explaining why a looted artefact should be returned to its country or community of origin can sometimes be straightforward. But explaining how is altogether different

A unique shell necklace believed to originate from the Bass Strait islands has been returned by The Hunterian collection to representatives from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC) who travelled to Glasgow to carry it home

Laying Ancestors to Rest pulls no punches. The recommendations made in a new policy brief published by the All Party-Parliamentary Group on Afrikan-Reparations (APPG-AR) include making the sale of human remains illegal and putting an end to the public display of ancestral remains

What will it take to break the British Museum’s determination not to explain when an object is ‘unfit to be retained’?

There are several reasons why Britain’s new Labour administration may be closer to agreeing a loan of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece than the previous Conservative government, even though a full transfer of ownership remains firmly off the agenda

Investigations into the collecting patterns of major US museums has resulted in two immensely readable and influential books covering today’s illegal trade in trafficking antiquities: Chasing Aphrodite and The Medici Conspiracy