The Netherlands returned six artefacts including a cannon, a ceremonial sword and two guns taken from Sri Lanka more than 250 years ago on Tuesday, as part of efforts by the former colonial power to redress historical wrongs, officials said. Sri Lanka asked the Netherlands to return the artefacts after the Dutch government approved the restitution of historic objects in 2021. The artefacts were taken in 1765 from Kandy, the last kingdom of ancient Sri Lanka, when the Dutch besieged the palace, a statement from the Netherlands embassy said. People view colonial-era artefacts that have been returned from the Netherlands, at the main Museum in Colombo, Sri Lanka December 5, 2023. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte "The objects were wrongfully brought to the Netherlands during the colonia...
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Germany handed over to Colombia on Friday two masks made by the Indigenous Kogi people that had been in a Berlin museum’s collection for more than a century, another step in the country’s restitution of cultural artifacts as European nations reappraise their colonial-era past. The wooden “sun masks,” which date back to the mid-15th century, were handed over at the presidential palace during a visit to Berlin by Colombian President Gustavo Petro. The decision to restitute them follows several years of contacts between Berlin’s museum authority and Colombia, and an official Colombian request last year for their return. “We know that the masks are sacred to the Kogi,” who live in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of northern Colombia, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier s...
Read MoreA priceless 16th century Italian painting that was looted by Nazi Germany during World War II and discovered in Japan has been returned to Poland, authorities in Warsaw said Wednesday. The “Madonna with Child” attributed to Alessandro Turchi, is the latest of some 600 looted artistic pieces that Poland has successfully repatriated. More than 66,000 so-called war losses remain unaccounted for. The painting was handed over during a ceremony at Poland’s Embassy in Tokyo Wednesday. Culture Minister Piotr Glinski told reporters in Warsaw that the baroque painting was on the Nazis’ list of the 521 most valuable pieces of art among the tens of thousands of artworks that they looted when they occupied Poland between 1939-45. This handout picture provided by the Polish Institute in Tokyo ...
Read MoreThe return of the British Museum's Parthenon Marbles to Greece is possible even if the two sides cannot come to an agreement over who owns the sculptures, a campaign group working to resolve the long-standing dispute said on Sunday. Greece has asked for others to imitate the Vatican Museums after they agreed this month to return three 2,500-year-old pieces of the Parthenon. London and Athens are in talks over the Parthenon Sculptures held by the British Museum. The Parthenon, which is on the Acropolis in Athens, was completed in the fifth century BC as a temple to the goddess Athena, and its decorative friezes contain some of the greatest examples of ancient Greek sculpture. FILE PHOTO: A man looks at the Parthenon Marbles, a collection of stone objects, inscriptions and sculptur...
Read MoreGermany signed an agreement on Thursday to transfer ownership to Nigeria of the Benin Bronzes, among Africa's most culturally significant artefacts which were looted in the 19th century. British soldiers took hundreds of bronzes - intricate sculptures and plaques dating back to the 13th century onwards - when they invaded the Kingdom of Benin, located in what is now southwestern Nigeria, in 1897. The artefacts ended up in museums around Europe and the United States. African countries have for years fought to recover them. FILE PHOTO: Benin bronzes objects are displayed at the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, Wednesday June 29, 2022 . (Bernd Weissbrod/dpa via AP) Germany returned the first of the sculptures to Nigeria in July. On Thursday, the Foundation of Prussian Cult...
Read MoreA new guild of artists from Nigeria's Benin City has offered to donate artworks to the British Museum in London as a way to encourage it to return the priceless Benin Bronzes that were looted from the city's royal court by British troops in 1897. Created in the once mighty Kingdom of Benin from at least the 16th century onwards, the bronze and brass sculptures are among Africa's finest and most culturally significant artefacts. European museums that house them have faced years of criticism because of their status as loot and symbols of colonial greed. Nigerian traditional chiefs stand next to a life-size ram made out of spark plugs, one of the artworks offered as a gift to the British Museum by a new guild of artists, at the unveiling of the artworks in Benin City, Nigeria, July 31,...
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