Antiquities

as 'political weapons'...

A Case in Antiquities for ‘Finders Keepers’

Alas, in many cases, given the instability of the areas that these things were discovered, many of them would no longer exist if they hadn't been removed from the countries in which they were discovered...

Determining ownership is fraught with difficulties.

"Dr. Hawass may consider the Rosetta Stone to be the property of his government agency, but the modern state of Egypt didn’t even exist when it was discovered in 1799 (much less when it was inscribed in 196 B.C., during the Hellenistic era). The land was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and the local historians were most interested in studying their Islamic heritage. "

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