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Comment by qazpot | Hacker News Reader

> The British Museum is one of the greatest places on earth.

Where treasures looted from other cultures are displayed ?

It’s not that simple, a lot of places in the world don’t have the means to preserve archeological artifacts. Also past a certain date I’m of the opinion it’s a shared human history (because the more we go back the more we share ancestors) that modern nations have no rights to claim exclusivity on, here for example the culture that produced the Rosetta Stone doesn’t exist anymore. Sure geographically it would make more sense, but as long as anyone can have access to it and it’s well preserved I’m fine with it.

I agree somewhat. Also, it's not always clear who the most legitimate heirs are in these cases. For example, why the Egyptian government and not, say, the Coptic Church? I don't have a source but I seem to recall reading once that Copts are genetically more similar to Ancient Egyptians than other modern Egyptian, who are predominantly of Arab descent.

I would rather go to the places these antiquities were from and visit in a museum there.

Another thing worth pointing out, the British Museum was founded with the objective of proving events written in the bible were based on historical events. Let's air all this dirty laundry while we are at it.

That's fascinating.

Maybe some day the Creation Museum in Kentucky (link omitted) will have the same longevity and benefits of colonial resource extraction.

I dunno—you set out to prove something about some battle recorded in the Bible, or whatever, you're gonna end up uncovering some real history (maybe even the kind you wanted!) probably, so there's a substantial connection to reality to drive the overall process, even if there's strong bias in the mission. The evolution (har, har) of that into something like a secular museum has a clear path to follow.

You set out to prove the Earth was made in 6 days a few thousand years ago, you're... likely not gonna be coming up with much that's connected to reality, even by accident.

Though it is funny to imagine.

I've never seen that particular claim about the museum - it was set up to hold Sloane's collection alongside the Cottonian and Harleian libraries. Where is it from? Is this a misremembering of the tale about the discovery of the flood tablet?

Not that I disagree with the general sentiment, but I'd be surprised if a National Museum of any country didn't have looted treasures. I'm not sure why the British are always singled out for this, and other countries conveniently ignored.

Other countries are not ignored, it's just that their looting pales in comparison and British culture gets talked about more by virtue of being in English.

CF : the next in line offender, our French friends in the Louvre.

Where the Rosetta stone would be if the British hadn't stolen it after the battle of Trafalgar.

Oh. As a French I did not know that. Those sneaky little thieves. Stilling our hardly acquired loot.

Typical.

Yes, exactly, imagine how much harder it'd be to see all that awesome stuff in one place otherwise.

By that same token it would be ok if I stole a bunch of jewelry from a bunch of different places, as long as I wear it all together in an awesome ensemble for all to see.

No. But in 2200 years you and your jewellery collection will fair game for which ever archaeologist digs you up.

Not if the British are still around.

Sure. But large scale Pillage like the sack of the summer palace in Bejing are just too in-excusable .

The summer palace WAS a place to see those stolen things already.

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