Who Owns Ancient Artifacts?

Who owns Ancient Artifacts?

By Joseph Parish

A young lady who had read my rants, commented that I was remiss in putting articles on this page. For that I apologize to all and shall make an added effort to provide updated material to my status. To start out I have included an article questioning who actually owns ancient artistic artifacts. Without further ado, we will begin this journey.

Art in my estimation should never be removed from the soils of its birth lands. Often these remarkable objects are so much in demand that they manage to secretively appear in just about any nation of the world. Occasionally we will see these missing artifacts in one of the national museums, however, in the majority of the cases they end up residing in someone’s personal home collection. This outcome results in a drastic loss for anyone who appreciates the true value of antiquities.

As an example, since the initial onset of the King Tutankhamen’s exhibit here in America, there had been a perpetual mystique which has resulted in the mass exodus of a sizeable number of ancient Egyptian relics from their country and entering ours. Ancient Egypt has for ages, offered the curious individual a vivid glimpse into the awe enthused life of people dwelling in an age where we as modern man can only imagine the various facets. Its majestic lifestyle coupled with the sheer mystical history associated with this ancient civilization encourages an air of significance to every aspect of its existence.

It is perhaps this impression of quietude and timelessness in its portrayals which has accounted for the prevalent appeal towards Egyptian art. As with any supply and demand situation, if there are people who desire to purchase the products then there will be those who are willing to provide them with it regardless of the future consequences.

I myself consider some of these objects which portray ancient Egypt as signifying a civilization basking in its most intensified time periods, however, as much as I love this era of history, I cannot condone the exploitation of any of the products from their homeland to another location. In fact, I feel that those items should have been properly photographed, recorded, cataloged and the pyramid resealed to preserve what has been found for some future generations.

I would venture to say that in 1922 upon opening the Tut’s tomb and noticing the pristine condition of the objects within, Mr. Carter reserved some of the more interesting artifacts for his personal collection. I believe that at the time of the discovery the archeologist was entitled to acquire a specific amount of his discovered finds for his personal use. Since that time, I trust the laws have progressively changed and now forbid such actions. Just because his financial partner Lord Carnarvon had obtained the necessary rights to excavate within the Egyptian Valley of the Kings did not in any way bestow upon him the unilateral right to remove those treasures of which were found.

It is saddening, but poetic that those people who invaded and exposed the tomb to outside influences encountered hidden lung diseases as a result of the erysipelas bacteria which had existed within the rooms of the tomb thus contributing to the rumor of the mummy's curse. Due to the same climate which had for ages preserved these popular mummies of the famous Pharaohs many of the country’s artifacts had also been spared the perils of time. Unfortunately, many of these artifacts from the ancient Egyptian era are readily available on the open market as a search on E-bay will quickly confirm. Even the major auction houses such as Christie’s or Sotheby’s of New York have indulged in the sale of these authentic antiquities. The continued sales create a sense of scarcity and the rarity of the products merely encourages the market privateers to for take in more disappearing assets.

The Egyptian office of antiquities has been very active in pursuing the return of many objects of art which have literally been stolen from their country, however, their interests lie predominantly with the major art holders such as museums as opposed to the small-time private collector. The problem here lies in the fact that the private owners more than likely have the largest holdings of the objects than the museums. In conclusion, as with the stakeholders of the original art objects I too would like to see all these valuable items of art returned to their rightful country of origin.

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