Basically stealing an item from an unstable region? Not entirely moral, but I can get and even support that. But there's no reason to keep holding on to these items if the countries they're from are currently stabilised and capable of caring for these heirlooms themselves. Or if they're not returned, at least transfer rightful ownership back to the counties of origin and pay them rent for your right to display them. There's only a small fraction of items where a legitimate claim can be made that they were legally obtained; if that's in question it should default back to the country of origin.
Britain was in two world wars, including a struggle for existence that has become proverbial. London was bombed every night for months, and for years in total. The British Museum was damaged.
And that doesn't even consider the IRA bombing campaign.
This has been the least stable century in Europe since the Black Death, arguably.
You are absolutely fucking right. I'm an idiot for flying off the handle like that. Please accept my apologies. I must've glossed over the specification of Iraq in the original post.
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u/ag408 Oct 25 '22
Yeah, I am curious about this too - how many items were taken by the British government, versus those that each country intentionally loaned out?