The Bayeux tapestry is so fragile that transporting it risks irreparable damage, French experts have said, in a petition urging Emmanuel Macron to reverse a “catastrophic” decision to loan the unique embroidery to Britain.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Times change. So, too, do people. Human sensitivities evolve with age and self-education and understanding. Unlike some institutions like the British Museum, however, which seem to remain largely intransigent.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A small marble fragment believed to be from a 6th-century B.C. temple on the Acropolis (before the Parthenon) has been voluntarily returned to Greece by a family in Chile that had held it for nearly a century, the Greek culture ministry announced.
www.iefimerida.gr/english/anci...

New Case: The Cleveland Bronze, contributed by Michela Herbert

Today the Cleveland Museum will take its iconic Roman bronze sculpture off display and return it to Türkiye after a failed attempt to deny its origins in the heavily looted site of Bubon.

mola.omeka.net/items/show/2...

good evening to everyone except the hard-right culture warriors and those who would appease them 🔥✨❤️

an important documentary about returning the dead from German museums, I am in there somewhere around minute 22
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

Press release from yesterday's Reuniting the Parthenon Marbles event organised by Andrew George MP. I wasn't able to attend, but it was good to see a lot of familiar faces in the photos.
www.elginism.com/elgin-marble...

Relooted, one of the most anticipated video games of 2025, allows players to take stolen African artifacts from Western museums and return them to their home countries.

AJ+ talked to one of the creators...

www.instagram.com/reel/DMETOk6...

The looting of Iraq post fall of Saddam was more high profile - but we could be seeing a similar situation in slow motion, where large amounts of ancient heritage is illegally excavated and sold in plain sight.
Organisations that are facilitating sales of such artefacts need to do more to stop this.

Nigel Farage's support for keeping the Parthenon Marbles in the UK ought to help convince many who were on the fence (often through lack of in depth knowledge of the issue) that returning them is clearly the right side to take.

Here starts the campaign for Britain to repatriate the plundered acronym "PAC", in fact the whole concept. It belongs in the US of A.

"Great British Pac calls for an end to any negotiations to return the Parthenon sculptures or risk legal challenges."
www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Worrying podcast from @theguardian.com about the rapid rise of metal detecting in Syria lost Assad - and what it means for the preservation of the country's heritage.
www.theguardian.com/world/audio/...

John Huntley went further, pointing out that there is no credible dispute over the legal ownership of the tapestry - only discussion of where it should best be displayed:
www.elginism.com/similar-case...

Now that I've previously written about how this case is nothing like that of the Parthenon Marbles (and indeed this loan is not in response to any sort of ownership valuation from Britain):
www.elginism.com/similar-case...

The Bayeux tapestry will return to the UK for the first time in more than 900 years as part of a landmark reciprocal loan agreement by Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron - a great example of cultural cooperation.
www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

I've written half of a piece in City AM today on the Parthenon Marbles and whether they should return to Greece - it won't surprise you that I'm the one arguing on the Yes side.
www.cityam.com/the-debate-s...

I'd assume that it was insured and that the payout was made on this - which would tend to mean that it would be the property of the insurers if recovered?

In terms of the outcome though, stuff is of limited value without provenance - there would need to be proof it was the same sculpture and not just a copy that got bashed up to make it look like it had been in a building collapse.

Feels like a fair bit of overlap with @marcfennell.bsky.social's Stuff the British Stole. Maybe there needs to be a Stuff the Americans Lost series.

Sorry

Oops. Thanks.

Interesting story just cropped up on @mattbevan.bsky.social's ever fascinating ABC - If You're Listening podcast.

What happened to the original bronze cast of Rodin's The Thinker from Cantor Fitzgerald's World Trade Center offices after 9-11?
www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

I can’t believe this isn’t a spoof article. It seems to be supporting a very questionable approach to human remains. @babao2025meeting.bsky.social
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

HT: the inimitable @danhicks.bsky.social for raising this story.