WeirdIndependent1656 t1_iufq0fb wrote on October 30, 2022 at 11:46 PM

Reply to comment by maniczebra in BBC News: UK museums willing to return skulls to Zimbabwe by GodlordHerus

That video is riddled with inaccuracies and completely misses the entire war in Syria that destroyed an incalculable amount of irreplaceable historical artifacts. The destruction of Aleppo was a tragedy that cannot be recovered from.

We cannot trust the only copies of irreplaceable historical artifacts to unstable middle eastern dictatorships. This is both self evident and proven by recent history.

maniczebra t1_iug96he wrote on October 31, 2022 at 2:15 AM

Nevertheless, it is not the purview of the western world to hold hostage cultural artifacts of other nations. That is a reductionist attitude, left over from the era of patriarchal colonial control of most of these countries. Their cultural artifacts should be returned to them, and only retained in western museums where their respective national governments outright request the retention of those artifacts for protective purposes. Anything else is patriarchal colonialism all over again. It’s racist and it’s wrong.

WeirdIndependent1656 t1_iuguoop wrote on October 31, 2022 at 5:54 AM

It’s not racist. There are many countries where the current rulers, who incidentally have nothing in common with the ancient inhabitants of the area, destroy antiquities. Putting humanity’s antiquities in their hands isn’t anti racist, it’s just stupid. Don’t give antiquities to the people who destroy antiquities if you want there to still be antiquities.