The British Museum is asking the public to help recover around 2,000 stolen artefacts and treasures.
Well, karma...
The museum, home to the Rosetta Stone and Parthenon marbles, launched a public hotline asking the public to help them locate missing items, which mainly belong to ancient Rome and Greece.
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It comes after the museum located in Bloomsbury, London, announced in August that many jewellery and gem items from its collection were stolen, missing or damaged.
The website reads: “If you are concerned that you may be, or have been, in possession of items from the British Museum, or if you have any other information that may help us, please contact us at [email protected].”
It added that in the coming months, the museum is expected to see ‘updates on the progress of our recovery programme. These updates will include information on the material that we have recovered and recognition of the many people offering us help'.
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Among the stolen items are classical Greek and Roman gems, gold rings and earrings.
However, the British Museum has historically come under fire for refusing to return valuable objects to its country of origin.
The Greek government has rallied for the return of the Parthenon marbles, with the Greek Ministry of Culture declaring the institution stole these sculptures.
“We repeat, once again, our country’s firm position that it does not recognize the British Museum’s jurisdiction, possession, and ownership of the sculptures, as they are the product of theft,” they told the newspaper Kathimerini.
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Artnet reported that during a televised meeting with Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis even chimed in: "Not only we, Greeks, but everyone, including our visitors, see and enjoy this universal monument in its entirety, in its natural space, which is none other than the Acropolis Museum.”
Aside from Greece, a growing number of countries are demanding the restoration of their artefacts taken from the colonial era, including Ethiopia, Nigeria and China.
Most recently, China requested the return of the more than 23,000 artefacts, including the ‘Liao tri-coloured luohan statues, ritual bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, stone buddhist sutra scrolls of the Wei and Jin dynasties, and other extremely valuable national treasures'.
“As long as Britain cannot prove which collection was acquired legally and honestly, then the mother country of these collections has the right to seek their repatriation,” The Global Times read.
Featured Image Credit: DieterMeyrl/Getty Images. The British MuseumTopics: News, UK News, World News