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Comment by laurensr | Hacker News Reader

What about art in museums all over the world that is requested back by the country of origin?

They should sue as anyone else can for goods back, if they have proof they own it .

There have been many articles written about this, you should read them. But in some of the more egregious cases, I would ask you this: how do you sue a government for plundered art when the government has passed laws that prevent you from suing the government?

You're talking about publicly possessed (stolen or not) art where the public won't vote to allow consideration of patriating the art abroad?

You said lawsuit. In many countries, a lawsuit is not feasible.

I said sue, not lawsuit. In some countries you use a lawsuit. In others, it merely means to seek legal redress such as petitioning a dictator.

Suing is the same as bringing a lawsuit. You're ineffectually splitting hairs. Still likely not effective. What's your point?

You've pointed to 'many' countries and also to laws stopping this. Now you've evaluated likelihood. Since you were able to drive a likelihood calculus, what specific laws were you calculating against?

Not who you’re responding to but laws that govern this: Multinational:

Hague Convention of 1907

1970 UNESCO

1995 UNIDROIT

US:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieber_Code

2004 HR1047 section 204.

(Those are more about stopping theft / destruction- not return.)

UK:

Except for human tissue, it’s basically not legally regulated.

Australia:

No laws. There is a government program for aboriginal art and remains.

But as an example, Egypt frequently requests the return of the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum.

Thanks for the deets. Do you know if UK has courts that handle people who sue one another? It looks as if you can file suit against the UK government. I'm genuinely curious, has someone with evidence of ownership sued the British Museum?

I can see a compelling argument someone might claim ownership of the stone, I'm curious where in the process they were shut down, if they didn't try, or they did and their suit was dismissed.

I’m Curious about this too actually.

The closest “easy” thing would be a statutory claim I think.

But you can’t make it if the debt is over 6 years old.

https://www.gov.uk/statutory-demands

It appears you can sue for the return of property in civil court.

https://www.askthe.police.uk/view-category/?id=2ec7e112-6ad2...

I’m Sure though there’s complexity that make all of that not relevant if it’s a country suing.

Usually international treaty comes into place when things are international.

However, some interesting cases against the British museum.

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/a-uk-heritage-group-wi...

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/world/europe/greece-briti...

There’s a whole book on this dispute from a litigator.