By All Means....

[Minimalist]

Let's send priceless artifacts back to Egypt.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... y-fix.html

King Tutankhamun mask back on display after botched epoxy fix
Egypt puts famed golden burial mask back on display after repairing botched attempt to reattach the mask's beard

[circumspice]

It's their patrimony. Leave them alone.

A big part of the problem is that the 'great white scholar' has deemed any efforts by indigenous people to be inadequate, therefore they shouldn't be allowed to keep it. (whatever 'it' happens to be at any given time) The big justification being that any nation's patrimony is also mankind's patrimony...

That's a big bunch of hooey.

The days of 'benevolent' paternalism are over. What are you going to do? Form an oversight committee & inspect every museum that 'someone' has defined as inadequate? Are you then going to swoop in & remove all the precious 'treasures' & carry them off to a 'safe' place?

Let people find their own way. Look at the mess that great white scholars had made in the 17th - 19th centuries... Look at the great harm that those smug, self-righteous bigots did to other people's patrimony... Consider the damage inflicted by Belzoni. In these days & times he'd be prosecuted for what he had done. Yet he is lionized for being a proto-archaeologist. (but mostly for bringing his ill-gotten artifacts back to 'civilization'... kinda like the high & mighty Lord Elgin)

There are many examples I could cite, but you get the idea.

Just sit on your ivory throne smugly & denigrate all their efforts if it makes you feel superior.

[Cognito]

Look at the mess that great white scholars had made in the 17th - 19th centuries... Look at the great harm that those smug, self-righteous bigots did to other people's patrimony...

Would you include Flinders Petrie in that ad hominem post mortem?

[kbs2244]

[color=#0040FF]Let people find their own way. Look at the mess that great white scholars had made in the 17th - 19th centuries... Look at the great harm that those smug, self-righteous bigots did to other people's patrimony... Consider the damage inflicted by Belzoni. In these days & times he'd be prosecuted for what he had done. Yet he is lionized for being a proto-archaeologist. (but mostly for bringing his ill-gotten artifacts back to 'civilization'... kinda like the high & mighty Lord Elgin) [/color]

What follows your opening sentence in this paragraph does not support that lead sentence.t. The “mess” was the result of the open market, “the people,” finding their own way. You have to open your definition of “the people” beyond the “locals.”
Capitalism is messy. It breeds competition which means duplicity, which drives social control freaks nuts. But, in the end, it works. And it has been shown to, over the long run, work the best of any of it’s options. Your Elgin Marbles example is a classic example against your argument. Lord Elgin saw their value when the local army, made up of local citizens, was using them for target practice. It is very likely they would not exist today if not for his smug, self righteous intervention.

[Minimalist]

http://illicitculturalproperty.com/outs ... -in-egypt/

The primary focus is Egypt, and starts with the souvenir stalls at the Pyramids at Giza who are hungry for customers. Tourism we are told has all but ended in Egypt. It is the economic condition in the region, combined with the overstretched/inept/corrupt authorities inability to police sites that make it possible to loot. And the objects find willing buyers at auction houses and on the internet by using falsified histories. The program even manages to interview some looters, follow some down a massive (and dangerous) looters pit, and shows us the sad room where the antiquities ministry in Egypt is attempting to repatriate the huge volume of material which has left the country.

Sadly, it just seems to be a business over there.

Or even worse.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/world ... lmyra.html

ISIS Destroys Triumphal Arches in Palmyra, Syria

[Minimalist]

Some where the word "crazy" needs to be brought to bear on those bastards.