Heads are in the news this week. China has demanded the return of two 18th century bronze animal heads that belonged to the late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and auctioned in Paris on Wednesday. Egypt wants the famous head of Nefertiti back from the Egyptian Museum in Berlin.
There will be many who are sympathetic to the view that all historic and cultural artefacts seized decades or even centuries ago in war, by colonial regimes or in similar questionable circumstances should be returned to their countries of origin, if so desired. There are many such demands. Greece wants back the marble friezes from the Parthenon now in the British Museum; Nigeria wants the Benin Bronzes from the same museum; Turkey wants the Pergamon Altar from Berlin; Egypt the Rosetta Stone (again in the British Museum) and sphinxes in the Louvre in Paris. When the Taleban was in power, Afghanistan demanded the British return the Koh-i-Noor diamond; India, Pakistan and Iran have at various times demanded it too.
The list is enormous — and reclaiming the past is not limited to demands for artefacts. It is expressed in calls for apologies or financial recompense for past action now seen as wrong. It is seen, too, in the demolition, for present-day political purposes, of monuments and buildings put up by former rulers and regimes.
Invaders have always looted and sent booty home. The obelisk in St.
Peter’s Square in Rome was taken from Egypt by the Roman Emperor Caligula; Persia’s ruler Nadir Shah seized the Peacock Throne as well as the Koh-i-Noor and Darya-i-Noor diamonds when he captured Delhi in 1739; French Emperor Napoleon was notorious for looting art from the lands he conquered and taking theme back to France; the Nazis looted on an equally monumental scale.
It is absolutely right that items recently stolen should be returned. But items stolen 200 years ago, 300 years ago, a thousand years ago? This is a minefield. In what sense can something stolen a couple of centuries ago be said to belong to a state that did not exist at the time? Even if that can be settled, how can Iran or Pakistan or Afghanistan claim the Kohi- Noor when their supposed predecessor states themselves stole it? And by what moral right can a government claim an item when the same regime, albeit in the hands of different individuals, set great store destroying such goods just a few years earlier? The two bronze animal heads would never have survived the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
A line has to be drawn somewhere. A hundred years seem a good cut-off point. That would cover anything stolen within the lifetime of an individual or owned by his or her immediate family. A statute of limitations is standard procedure in many countries. An item stolen 200 years ago would have been bought in good faith many times over since (the case with the Chinese bronze heads and why a French court agreed the auction could proceed). But it needs a UN treaty to give it teeth. That would help in the task of tracking down and repatriating items recently stolen and smuggled as well as ensuring that world heritage items long held in distant museums remain protected and treasured.
