<
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/nov/11/man-repatriates-19-antiquities-after-reading-guardian-article>
"An American man has returned 19 antiquities to the four countries they came
from after reading reports in the
Guardian about the repatriation of looted
antiquities.
John Gomperts, who lives in Washington, realised that the ancient pieces worth
up to £80,000 – including two seventh- and eighth-century BC Cypriot vases –
that he had inherited from his grandmother could have come from illicit
excavations because they have no collecting history.
He wanted to do the right thing legally and ethically by returning the items to
Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Pakistan respectively. After an agreement with his
two siblings, he has returned them.
He said: “It seemed like the right thing to do … I read stories on repatriation
and I thought: we have these pieces that are 2,500 years old from other
countries; we should explore whether we can give them back.”
But with no idea how to repatriate antiquities, he was initially worried that
he could be in trouble with the authorities for having potentially looted the
artefacts in his possession.
In those
Guardian reports, he noticed that Prof Christos Tsirogiannis, a
former senior field archaeologist at the University of Cambridge and a
specialist in antiquities and trafficking networks, had been quoted, and so he
reached out to him for advice."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
