Turkey Lobbies Museums Around World to Return Artifacts

Voice of America ^ | Friday, August 31, 2012 | Dorian Jones

[SunkenCiv]

Turkey is following an increasingly aggressive policy of getting top museums around the world to return its heritage. Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertugrul Gunay says that in the last decade, more than 4,000 artifacts had been brought back to Turkey from world museums and collections...

Gunay says when you visit the world's big museums in the US, England, France, Germany, you see that most of the precious artifacts came from Turkey, Italy, Egypt and Greece. Some of these, he says, were looted, and he is fighting to get back historical artifacts that went to the big museums of the world illegally from Turkey.

Along with aggressively taking action in court for the return of artifacts from major museums around the world, Gunay has adopted a new approach.

Earlier this year, he vetoed the lending of artifacts to a major exhibition by the British Museum until it returned artifacts Ankara claims were illegally removed. Similar sanctions are also being applied to other major museums.

Nezih Basgelen, editor of a leading Turkish archeological magazine, says the policy could have far reaching consequences for museums around the world...

Turkey's ministry of culture also uses the country's continuing popularity for archeologists as a means to apply pressure. Ankara threatened to suspend a German archaeologist's permit on a major site unless a German museum returned a disputed artifact back to Turkey. The museum eventually complied last year.

But the tough policy has drawn criticism that the ministry should set its own house in order before looking abroad.

[SunkenCiv]

Istanbul's Haghia Sophia Museum (2010 photo)

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Rest of region tells Turkey, return yourself to Central Asia. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Doomonyou]

Makes sense, get them all in one place so the Taliban can blow it up all together.

[publius911]

Turkey is following an increasingly aggressive policy of getting top museums around the world to return its heritage.

Turkey can go pound sand.
Egypt and Greece are another two countries that are ungrateful bastards.

Greece is the clearest example I can think of. The Elgin Marbles (a fascinating story there) were in the process of being ground to dust to make plaster or cement when Lord Elgin saved them by paying good money for them. If the civilied countries had not found, rescued and bought all of the ancient treasures in western museums, THEY WOULD NO LONGER EXIST!

If these idiots want to compensate for the million$ spend in organizing expeditions, building infrastructures, the REQUIRED payment to thousands of workers to rescue and restore the historical treasures, compensate for the Western lives lost, WITH INTEREST, the Western Civilized countries may consider returning the saved treasures to the clueless loser dysfunctional, not yet totally civilized countries.

[Sherman Logan]

Interesting. Vast majority of these “Turkish heritage” items are pre-Turkish, and the people who actually created the items would probably feel a closer cultural connection to those who have them now than to those who presently occupy their homeland.

[blueunicorn6]

I’m not giving back those drumsticks....or the wishbone. They can threaten me all they want....I’ll throw stuffing at them.

[hinckley buzzard]

Eggsackly. Look at what the islamic dogs and pigs have done with the museums in Cairo--not to mention the obvious obscenities perpetrated in Afghanistan, or the many priceless sites looted and destroyed in Iraq.

Turkey is unstable and cannot assure that radical morons will not take power and pulverize these artifacts. There is no one in that country who can say that with crdiblility. Therefore, the empirical fact is, Turkey must be found to be unfit to be the guardian of antiquities.

[Verginius Rufus]

Somehow I don’t think the Russians are going to return the treasures from Troy which Heinrich Schliemann snuck out of Turkey during his excavations, which the Russians stole from a museum in Berlin in 1945.

[publius911]

The Western World demands the return of the stolen and desecrated Haggia Sofia, too.

Wish and demand in one hand, and **** in the other...

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Screw ‘em!

[BurningOak]

How about they give Istanbul back to Western civilization...

[crazydad]

Free Constantinople!!!!

[bigheadfred]

return its heritage

They can have it all back.

It is a fool's gambit.

[ThirdMate]

Turks out of Asia Minor!

[Vendome]

You lost....

[ZULU]

After what has happened in Egypt, I hope and pray that no more artifacts are ever returned to nations dominated by these Muslim lunatics.