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I consider myself lucky to have been born in 1957. I believe I was first taken to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the "Met") when I was eleven or twelve years old, in the late 1960's. The works of art, from ancient Greece, Egypt and Africa were awe-inspiring. Now, the powers that be plan to "return" much of this art tot he Third-World governments of lands that produced them. See New York Times article (link). Part of the program, to return stolen works, are unobjectionable. Excerpt (link):
Quote:
Originally Posted by New York Times
The moves come as the Met — one of the largest museums in the world, with more than 1.5 million works from the past 5,000 years in its holdings — has been buffeted in recent years by increasing calls to repatriate works that law enforcement officials and foreign governments say it has no right to.
Other parts are almost open-ended. Excerpt:
Quote:
Originally Posted by New York Times
Some critics want museums to do far more than simply ensure that ancient objects were not stolen. Even when no laws were broken, they want museums to place a greater emphasis on social justice, ensuring that objects were not obtained by exploiting societies weakened by poverty, colonialism, war or political instability — and to return them if they were.
Here's the problem; most of the world, except for a few select First-World countries, have been part of "societies weakened by poverty, colonialism, war or political instability." Basically, this means emptying of the great museums of the world.
Well, in these times of computers and digitalization, consider that the concepts of "ownership", "on display", even a museum's "collection" have been radically altered. The original object no longer needs to be physically present in order to impress, educate, or contribute to research. Patrons aren't permitted to touch or handle most original museum collection artifacts in any case.
Greece, though far from perfect, is not exactly a third world country....
Damned close. I had dinner tonight with my ethnically Greek friend, whose parents, I think, were born here. He agreed that most of Greece's more talented people brain-drained here.
I always thought museums had permission to display works of ancient art. If they acquired art illegitimately it should be returned. In the UK the monarch has possession of rare and large diamonds acquired during British colonialism, that some countries claim should be returned.
They're being returned because they were illegally looted from those countries. They don't belong to the US museum and never did.
At the time they were collected their collection was not "illegal." It is only some socialist view of reality of post-hoc reasoning that makes them illegal.
Damned close. I had dinner tonight with my ethnically Greek friend, whose parents, I think, were born here. He agreed that most of Greece's more talented people brain-drained here.
No, not even close despite its problems. You need to do a bit of research about what a third world country is. Or perhaps you're just slinging mud....as if the US doesn't have about the same amount of problems as Greece does and probably more.
Damned close. I had dinner tonight with my ethnically Greek friend, whose parents, I think, were born here. He agreed that most of Greece's more talented people brain-drained here.
No, not even close despite its problems. You need to do a bit of research about what a third world country is. Or perhaps you're just slinging mud....as if the US doesn't have about the same amount of problems as Greece does and probably more.
I am not mudslinging. Obviously people that uprooted themselves with barely the clothes on their back, at a time when the U.S. had no welfare programs other than charity, did so for a reason. Even my great-grandparents escaped from the Czar's army in Kiev, Ukraine. Obviously not something you do to see the Halifax, NS skyline in 1896.
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