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Comment by onetimeusename | Hacker News Reader

I think it's a interesting question and I suspect the answer is that this isn't about repatriation of artifacts, it's more about politics.

There was a lot of art taken during the Napoleonic Wars from the Catholic Church too. Napoleon took art from other European countries too but the Italian states were the least able to repatriate anything at the time. A lot of art that was looted still sits in the Louvre. I kind of wonder if repatriation only matters when the artifact came from non western countries to western ones.

What happens, when, for example, a church in Italy is the beneficiary let alone a European country? Does that make it less urgent? I haven't seen any calls for repatriations in this sense that make headlines.

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> I kind of wonder if repatriation only matters when the artifact came from non western countries to western ones.

No. There's also been a lot of noise over the Elgin Marbles (stolen from Greece, mentioned in the article). The Koh-i-Noor has just been in the news lately because of the death of the queen and it being part of the crown jewels.

That effort and debate of repatriation of the Elgin Marbles has been going on for centuries and I think it's debatable if Greece (or the Ottomon Empire) is even part of the western nations. So, kindly, I disagree that there is any urgency or that repatriation of that artefact is even strictly non political. However, there is a movement to repatriate items taken from non-western nations during colonial times which many museums are dealing with presently[1] although this article is specific to the British Museum. The Louvre deals with similar requests, which is where the art looted by Napoleon sits. I don't think I have ever seen a call in headlines to return works to churches or other European countries. There isn't any urgency to do that. So I believe the reason for this imbalance is just that it's political and not really about the items themselves.

[1]:https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/18/uk-museums-f...

> debate of repatriation of the Elgin Marbles has been going on for centuries

> I think it's debatable if Greece (or the Ottomon Empire) is even part of the western nations.

The Parthenon marbles are over two millennia old. They were looted by Elgin just over two centuries ago.

Greece's history stretches back at least four millennia (since the Mycenaeans - considered the first Greek peoples). The Ottoman empire occupied Greece for a bit under four centuries.

You're likely to get a fairer hearing for your points if you don't pepper them with errors.

Nothing you said refutes either of those claims. The Ottoman Empire controlled Greece at the time the Elgin Marbles were taken and it's unclear that they granted permission to remove them. They probably didn't so they were likely stolen from the Ottomans at the time. Further, the Ottomans were decidedly not a Western nation. Greece's history does not imply they are part of the West either. In a literal sense they are not, being part of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Meanwhile, repatriation of artefacts taken from Asia/Africa is a more modern movement that has coincided with anti-colonialism. So although the debate about repatriating the Elgin Marbles has been going on for ~200 years, in my opinion, it is being lumped together with the anti-colonial movements and even fits into that pattern. If you don't believe there is a movement to repatriate artefacts taken during colonial times from non-western nations see the link above or do a search.

There is no movement to return loot or spoils of war to western beneficiaries. So it seems pretty clear to me that anti-colonalism motivates the current claims which is a political ideology. If it was strictly about the ethics of looting, you might see people advocating for a return of items to churches and western countries but no one does that.

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