Doing the Right Thing: Returning National Treasures from Museums

Recently in the news, the University College Cork, Ireland and the Vatican decided to give back artifacts to the countries from which they were taken. The Irish college is returning artifacts to Egypt, while the Vatican is returning artifacts to Greece (that were removed from the Parthenon. I think its a good thing. I can understand exhibits on loan or traveling exhibits, but these don't appear to be those. As someone who visited the Partnenon a couple of years ago, it would have been better to see more of what used to be there (there's a museum nearby). Here are the stories from Archaeology Org: 

(Caption: DENIS MORTELL PHOTOGRAPHY / BBC NEWSImage caption,

This wooden sarcophagus is thought to have belonged to a man called Hor)

Ireland Will Repatriate Artifacts to Egypt

CORK, IRELAND—Next year, University College Cork will return mummified human remains, a wooden sarcophagus excavated by Ernesto Schiaparelli in the early twentieth century, four canopic jars, cartonnage, and other ancient artifacts to Egypt, according to a BBC News report. The sarcophagus, thought to have belonged to a man named Hor, and the mummy, also thought to belong to a man, were donated to the school. The canopic jars, dated to between 945 and 700 B.C., are thought to be the oldest objects in the collection.

They were purchased by the university from an antiquities dealer. No records of how the cartonnage was acquired have been found. To read about the virtual unwrapping of the mummy of Amenhotep I, go to "Inside a Pharaoh's Coffin," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2022.

(Photo from our visit to the Parthenon 2 years ago)

Vatican Will Return Parthenon Sculptures to Greece

VATICAN CITY—The Associated Press reports that three fragments of the Parthenon marbles currently held in the Vatican Museums will be repatriated to Greece following a request for their return made by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. The return is described by the Vatican as a donation from Roman Catholic leader Pope Francis to His Beatitude Ieronymos II, the Orthodox Christian archbishop of Athens, and all of Greece.

The fragments include the head of a horse, the head of a boy, and a bearded male head from the 520-foot frieze depicting a procession in honor of the goddess Athena that surrounded the Parthenon, which was built on the Athenian Acropolis in the fifth century B.C. The sculpture fragments will be reunited with others now on display in the Acropolis Museum, according to a statement from the Greek Ministry of Culture. To read about ongoing work to document other marble fragments on the Acropolis, go to "The Acropolis of Athens: Scattered Architecture."