Instead of saying that rightful owners should get their artifacts you have down the bs route.
In the real world developing world is getting stronger and Europe is weakening. That tells you what's in the store sooner or later
In the real world developing world is getting stronger and Europe is weakening. That tells you what's in the store sooner or later
If I sell stuff overseas, does "rightful ownership" return to the nation I lived in as soon as it becomes historically interesting?
So all of Picassos work is now the property of Spain?
That notion is ridiculous and unworkable.
Regardless of the choice they end up where they belong in one way or another.
China hired thieves to take back looted art from France museum few years ago.
There are some people here saying “the people who made them are dead”. Which I imagine is an argument for “nobody actually owns them”. Which is a myopic view. The cultural heritage of a region should be able to be enjoyed by the people of that region. Imagine if major artifacts of American, or British (or wherever you are from) history were lost to another far away land and you had no opportunity to marvel at them, how might you feel?
That said, there is something to the notion of borrowing and “tours” of artifacts, so people of the world can also enjoy them.