[KarlInOhio]

'The 9.5-gram tablet was excavated a century ago by German archaeologists from the Ishtar Temple in what is now northern Iraq.'

So the Germans want it back because they nabbed it fair and square.

[KarlInOhio]

After looking at the article they claim that they took half of the haul and gave half to the Ottoman Empire who ruled that territory at the time as agreed to by the Ottomans, so Germany might have a fair title to it, rather than the typical archaeological title procedure of "finders keepers, losers weepers".

[Vigilanteman]

Yep. And the Flamenbaum heirs want to keep it because their patriarch either bought it from a Russian soldier who looted it or looted it himself to compensate for a tragedy the Germans imposed on their family.

It is sort of ironic. Like the descendants of slaves voting for a descendant of a family who made their fortune selling them into slavery.

[katana]

Yep. Of course much the same can be said of most Ancient Near East exhibit items in just about every European museum of art (and more than a few public squares in their capitals). The French, the British, and the Germans were particularly avid "collectors". Below is the Luxor, Egypt obelisk that the Khedive gave to France in the early 1800's and that now stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

If everything that has been looted, bought, or otherwise obtained by museums over the years was returned to the original settings there would be practically nothing to exhibit. And in the case of items from the Middle East the chances of the items being destroyed by Islamic fanatics argue against their return. In this case, considering the mass looting of art treasures done by the Nazis during the war, the Germans ought to be a embarrassed to ask.