Rescuing stolen art and antiquities 

Thays not true, they can always dig up some royal dead people and parade them to the public like they've done with Egyptian mummies.

@@fjell6543 YES it will be

🤣🤣🤣🤣 SO TRUE

That goes for most museums sadly.

And we will never give them back muhuhahahah😂

dlanska - The British Museum should follow the Met's lead instead of refusing to return stolen works.

right, of course...it's the media and their sensationalism

@@lynnhubbard844 or they could genuinely have a concern for art/artifacts and their countries of origins. Let's try not to be Republicans and go negative and hateful any chance we get.

@Michael Scot - It is such an important topic that I wish that film had been better.

It'll still turn into that--you just got here early

“Taken under nefarious reasons” - so ….. STOLEN

Most of the Italian artifacts were taken in WWII, how quickly everyone forgets nonno sided with the nazis. More time and energy should be put into returning artifacts taken out of Africa.

@@trevojreal7 Also, the mafia makes money from selling artifacts. People forget gangs and poor looters are the other reason.

@@trevojreal7 and pre-columbian artifacts

Oh yes the Benin Bronzes - I've seen them in the BM

That part! Sacred artifacts!

@@dimensionsdance I think the excuse given was that they couldn't possibly have been made by Africans, and that a Greek trading colony had produced them. Surely though it's nice that they can be seen and appreciated in London for free. Otherwise no-one would ever have heard of them

@@dylanharper1274 That doesn't fly. Many of those artifacts were never supposed to be seen by the un-initiated and the outside and represented ancestors and other deities that were removed from their families and community. They were not to be on display. They had and do have sacred, secret and revered purposes within their communities. Things need to be respected for their value within their communities and left alone. Thanks for your reply.

@@dimensionsdance I wonder if it would be ok to display copies, like I mean I know it's not the true artefacts but a 3 D printer and a bit of paint would make it possible to still display something to learn about in the museums, and finally give the real artefacts back to where they belong. I mean it's not as if the untrained eye would see the big difference. I would just find it super boring and a shame if museums just ever dislayed local art and never show any other cultures of the world, as I love museums and to learn about the world and the internet is cool but still that certain quality of a museum artefact in not there. I'm not sure thoug if even a copy would cross a border for this culture and specific artefacts, which could be the case. In which way we'd still have to respect it. The only thing I find hard though, is that considering what we saw Isis and other terror groups did and still do (or might even be official hostile governments like the Russian one destroying Ukrainian art right now), many artefacts in not exactly secure places in the world, might not survive at all in their home countries.

@Dashaway - Important topic, but not a superb movie. I wish it had risen to the moment.

you're right, Zoe. long overdue.

Everything that is from a specific country should absolutely stay with or go back to the country or origin. I think everyone can agree with that. That being said, a vast majority of the pieces taken from the Iraq Museum, was looted by Iraqi civilians themselves. And a lot of the Marines or Army officers just took the attitude that “they’re only ruining their own country”, or “we’ll never get that back again” after something was taken. But this officer actually listened to the people of Iraq and to his Marines and he came up with the amnesty program. All of a sudden, people started bringing stuff back! Not everything at first, but very close to all of it! They didn’t question anyone or give anybody a hard time as long as they were bringing back what they took. Turns out, most of the citizens that took things were actually employees of the museum at one time and they took the artifacts to save them from being blown up! These people weren’t criminals (like many assumed). These people cared so much about their past and the thousands of years of history some of those artifacts represented! A huge amount of the history of humanity itself could’ve been gone forever if not for those Iraqi’s and this officer and his Marines/soldiers under his charge. This was one thing Americans did right for those people at that time. And believe me, there were plenty of higher up officers that didn’t care at all about saving this stuff and thought it was a waste of our effort. It didn’t “win wars”, when you found priceless artifacts I guess, so an entire people’s culture means nothing because of that. 🙄

@Rachel Goldman - it already has. Many dealers, auction houses, and museums will no longer take art that does not have a solid provenance. If only ALL of them would take these lessons to heart.

It is working with him. If the MET wanted to tie things up in court, it could ... but it doesn't.

The MET reserves every right to push back against any litigation with a drawn out legal case. The MET could also argue that they bought the artifact in good faith. Which gives them legal protection considering public institutions are allowed to keep artifacts or avoid legal action if they can prove their purchase was unaware of the illegal nature of the artifact.

There is merit what you write, but the argument is more often used by those who just want to hold on to what is not rightfully theirs. It’s pretty much understood that the Elgin Marbles were illegally removed from Greece to the British Museum. The British have argued for decades that they would return them if there were an appropriate place to keep them. Greece responded with a purpose-built museum for the Marbles. The Brits still hold on to them, after their argument was eliminated.

@@markforan4812 I'm familiar w/ the story. Very large antiquities that are literally built into the building (think e.g. lahmasu at the Oriental Institute in Chicago) would require either removing a wing of a museum or reconstructing portions of the museum specifically built to showcase them. I can't agree that such items would be better off in their home country; wars and bombings have a habit of obliterating antiquities, not to mention some religious beliefs that command demolishing them. Have seen firsthand how smaller objects simply "disappear" when later researchers try to find them in storage. One local curator in a third world country admitted that artifacts tend to go missing; they have no guards, no real security system, and ppl think they will be easy to pawn off on the black market. Not saying that no one steals in industrialized countries, but there is more push to find and prosecute thieves who do.

❤️💋

damn bruh, everyone's getting shows made about them, soon that won't mean sh*t to have lmao AI can make your own sci-fi autobiography so one can pretend to future generations, having been eons more interesting than they actually were

@@s.durbar1294 huh? go back to school, "BRUH"

its more than a bit scary to return art to places where ISIS or other violent cults have the power to destroy items

@garrett21 - Not an excuse.

@Cndace Candler - Wrong video.

yeah thats what i was thinkin, its kinda sad. like that vase in greece will just be another vase in greece of thousands upon thousands, but somewhere else it would be more exotic and appreciated. but that's up to greece to decide and sell it if they want.

@Hamburgler - Not an excuse to steal. What did your parents teach you? (You have 2 cars in your garage - you won't miss 1. And it will look SO GREAT parked in front of my building where so many people can admire it. So, don't call the cops on me!)

@@MossyMozart that’s such a terrible analogy. More like, you’re Jay Leno, and you have hundreds of cars. A couple were stolen many years ago, and you hardly even remember them. They’ve been benefitting other drivers, many many other drivers for all this time. But you can get them back just for yourself to enjoy, even though you prob won’t even, bc you’re busy driving the other hundreds that you own.

The law only applies to artifacts taken after the year 1970 when the UN passed the resolution for the protection of cultural heritage. Also it only applies to artifacts that have been removed from the country after its heritage laws for example for Mexico it’s 1930, for Turkey it’s 1960. If it was looted or stolen before 1970 it’s fair game.

@SD789 I am not your bro. Time does not excuse the crime of theft.

@SD789 Not in these cases, otherwise, there won't be this story.

@OhLook - NONE of those objects shown were "trash".

Do you know anything about Getty himself ?

@@mafemartinez2235 Very little - enlightenment us???

@@mafemartinez2235 An oil businessman once the richest man in the world who collected antiquities and art so what?

It was because of that photo that the informant was able to get the object returned to Egypt. However, I agree on the point you make that it's unnecessary to see anything with Kim Kardashian in it ....

They made a law in the 1960s that makes it illegal to return anything. They’re shitheads

Ethics have been in low supply in the antiquities market until recently. For a small example, look up Hobby Lobby and its acquisitions.

That depends a lot of African and Asian nations and most of Europe are totally stable and have museum that can care for them now when a few decades ago they couldn’t

the macedonian empire was hellenic you fool.

better go back to history class

That’s stupid.

Every western nation's museum, not just the US

what happened, why was it to the detriment of Syrians?