I agree. At the beginning I thought this was a conservation effort.
Turns out to be the modern equivalent of colonisers stealing local artefacts.
Why export this at all!?
Turns out to be the modern equivalent of colonisers stealing local artefacts.
Why export this at all!?
Western societies took advantage of multiple other societies to plunder their treasures. Those same societies didn't have the infrastructure and/or care to preserve these things themselves.
Sometimes two things can be true.
And it is a damn TV. A big one for sure but it isn't Moctezuma II headdress nor are those Devatas carved from Banteay Srei cambodian temple.
And so much of what is considered "stolen" was given away by someone in that culture as trash.
The only people claiming theft are a third party that never owned the property in question or at the time gave it away freely.