The Ottoman government subsequently threatened to sue Schliemann and revoke his rights to dig at Hissarlik, but to no immediate effect. The authorities discovered the removal of the objects as Schliemann was known to have his wife, Sophia, model the fine gold jewelry for the public. Schliemann did not seek the proper authorization from the Ottoman government to remove the gold but, with the classic audacity of a nineteenth-century antiquarian, he did it anyway. Priam’s Treasure is a cache of gold and other valuables discovered by Heinrich Schliemann and Frank Calvert at the site of Hissarlik (Troy) in modern-day Turkey between 1871-1879.īelieving he had discovered Homer’s Troy, Schliemann conducted extensive excavations of dubious quality at the site in search of finds to support his claims, destroying much information in the process.

Where is it? The Pushkin Museum, majority (Moscow, Russia) Istanbul Archaeological Museum, partial (Istanbul, Turkey). This list presents ten other such cases, some resolved, some not, of cultural objects of dubious legality, where they came from, where they are now, and who wants them. The Parthenon Marbles and Greece’s quest for their restitution is perhaps one of the most famous instances of such a thing, with the marbles now becoming a part of two different and diametrically opposed national identities. And though many of these cases occurred decades, or even centuries, ago the repercussions of stolen cultural artifacts are still felt keenly within the modern nation state. Look no further than the elite homes and gardens of Rome to see early precedents of this, littered as they were with statues, paintings, and other fine art objects taken from the conquered cities of Greece.Īlthough cultural thievery on a scale such as that practiced by the Romans does not occur as openly today, there is a dark underbelly to every museum and auction house that hides the tales of untold atrocities. Humans have been engaging in the looting, sale, and destruction of each other’s cultural objects for millennia. Who owns the past? This question has been asked for centuries and yet we still have no good answers.

Cultural artifact examples