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Category: antiquities
The Getty Responds to Court Ruling on 2,000-Year-Old Victorious Youth Statue
The Guardian / December 5th, 2018
Italy’s supreme court has ruled that the Getty museum in Los Angeles must return a 2,000-year-old Greek bronze statue, known both as the "Victorious Youth" and the "Getty Bronze," that it bought for almost $4m in 1977. (Read more: The Guardian) In response, the museum released this statement ...
France Will Return Looted Cultural Artifacts, Following Macron-Commissioned Study
BBC / November 25th, 2018
In a historic move, France announced that some contested items in its museum collections will be restituted. “I cannot accept that a large part of the cultural heritage of several African countries is in France,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in Ouagadougou, the Burkina Faso capital. ...
Easter Islanders Ask British Museum for Return of Moai Statue
Guardian / October 24th, 2018
From the Guardian: Easter Island’s indigenous people have asked Chile’s government to help them recover a unique Moai statue removed 150 years ago and now kept in the British Museum in London. The seven-foot-tall (2.4-metre) Hoa Hakananai’a sculpture was removed from the island by Richard ...
Brexit Could Help the Case for Parthenon Sculptures to be Returned to Greece
Guardian / October 14th, 2018
The Parthenon, crown jewel from the cradle of Western civilization, needs its missing marbles. This political era seems like a fitting time for Athens, the birthplace of democracy, to have her most iconic cultural artifacts restored to their rightful place. The Acropolis Museum in Athens is ...
Brazil's Oldest Museum Consumed by Fire
The Guardian / September 3rd, 2018
A massive fire ripped through Brazil's oldest museum on Sunday night, possibly destroying some 20 million artifacts. The 200-year-old Museu Nacional (National Museum) housed natural history collections including fossils and indigenous artifacts found in Brazil as well as antiquities from Egypt ...
Gardner Museum Links Past and Present in Exhibition Featuring Prized Antiquity
WBUR / June 17th, 2018
Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum now explores the storied history and singular beauty of the Farnese Sarcophagus—as a centerpeice of a new exhibition—featuring its recent conservation, in-depth scholarship and a 3D artistic repsonse to the ancient artifact. With its glorious ...
$1 Billion Grand Egyptian Museum Readies for Opening
CNN / June 5th, 2018
Egypt hopes to lure tourists again with its $1 billion Grand Egyptian Museum, set to open in a soft launch by year's end. The largest museum in the world dedicated to one civilization, the new 5.2-million-square-foot building is a draw in itself, offering a sweeping overlook of the Great ...
UK's Corbyn Backs Returning Parthenon Sculptures to Greece
Independent / June 4th, 2018
UK Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn would return the Parthenon sculptures to Greece if elected Prime Minister, he said in an interview with Greek newspaper Ta Nea. Corbyn believes the sculptures, also called the Elgin Marbles, "belong to Greece." The international cultural agency UNESCO ...
Museum in Jerusalem to Get $40 Million Expansion and Refreshed Content
Haaretz / May 15th, 2018
The Tower of David Museum of the History of Jerusalem is gearing up for a $40 million expansion in 2019. Part of the renovation will be an enhanced entrance, which will be repositioned on the west side, plus a new wing, archaeological digs, and expanded content including artworks, changing ...
The Museum of Lost Art
Bloomberg / May 2nd, 2018
In a new book, The Museum of Lost Art, (May 4, Phaidon, $35) author Noah Charney spotlights the great art that the world has lost. What’s been destroyed, Carney writes in the book’s introduction, includes “more masterpieces than all of the world’s museums combined.” In 280 pages, ...
US Government's National Monument Reduction Puts Historic Sites at Risk
Huffington Post / March 30th, 2018
The recent downsizing of Bears Ears National Monument, one of America's public lands that the Trump administration has drastically shrunk, puts thousands of historic and archaeologically significant sites at risk. This singular Utah destination is now opened up for mining and ...
Supreme Court Rules Against Terrorism Victims Who Sought Items From Chicago Museums
Chicago Tribune / February 21st, 2018
The Supreme Court denied a transfer of Persian artifacts from Chicago museums to U.S. survivors of a 1997 terrorist attack as part of a court judgment against Iran. The court ruled 8-0 Wednesday against the victims of the suicide bombing in Jersualem. The victims sought to claim Iran's ...
Researchers Discover an Astounding Maya 'Megalopolis'
National Geographic / February 4th, 2018
Researchers say LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) technology projected from above 800 square miles of jungle in Central America has revealed a remarkable discovery. National Geographic reports: "In what’s being hailed as a 'major breakthrough' in Maya archaeology, researchers have identified ...
Manhattan DA Seizes More Antiquities from Billionaire Collector
New York Times / January 6th, 2018
Antiquities that prosecutors say were looted from Greece and Italy were taken from the Manhattan home and office of billionaire collector Michael H. Steinhardt on Friday. Known for his Greek artifact collection and patronage of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, hedge fund manager Steinhardt ...
Trump Drastically Reduces Two National Monuments
New York Times / December 4th, 2017
We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune. — Teddy Roosevelt Teddy Roosevelt's Antiquities Act was meant to give federal protections to historical, natural ...
The Age of Jesus Christ's Tomb Revealed
National Geographic / November 29th, 2017
Over the centuries, Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre has suffered violent attacks, fires, and earthquakes. It was totally destroyed in 1009 and subsequently rebuilt, leading modern scholars to question whether it could possibly be the site identified as the burial place of Christ by a ...
Authorities Seize Ancient Artifact at TEFAF New York
New York Times / October 29th, 2017
Police officers and two prosecutors seized an ancient limestone bas-relief from the booth of a London dealer at The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) New York Fall fair on Friday, reports the New York Times. The prestigious, vetted fair is on view at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan. The piece ...
Trump Withdraws U.S. from UNESCO
New York Times / October 12th, 2017
The Trump administration announced plans on Thursday to withdraw from UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. Citing "anti-Israel bias" as the primary reason for withdrawal, the U.S. seeks to be a nonmember observer of the U.N. agency that designates cultural ...
Ancient Egyptian Tomb With Artifacts Rediscovered Near Luxor
CNN / September 10th, 2017
Egyptian authorities unveiled a previously undiscovered ancient tomb belonging to a goldsmith and his wife near Luxor in southern Egypt on Saturday, reports CNN. The tomb, at the Draa Abul Nagaa necropolis, contains "mummies, sarcophagi, statuettes, pots and other artifacts," according to ...
Met Museum Hands Over Two Ancient Objects to Authorities
AD / August 3rd, 2017
Last week, the Metropolitan Museum of Art gave up a large painted terracotta vase that had been illegally excavated from an ancient burial ground in Italy to the district attorney. The ancient Greek vessel, a krater, shows Dionysus, god of the grape harvest, riding in a cart. In a second ...