MUSEUMS AND ETHICS: ROBBYNG THE PAST

Text topic: (Lack Of) Culture

Text author: Дејана Прњат

In this research we explore one of the questions which is part of museum ethics. That is the question of the rights of museums to lay claim to artifacts that are parts of cultural heritage of different countries. The question has arisen even more in public debates during the last ten years with a tendency of growing importance. There are several important parts of this problem. One of them stems from the fact that many museums have collected their artifacts without even asking too many questions about the origin of donated objects, although many artifacts have been collected legally. Many researchers, also, open the question of authenticity of those who claim the artifacts. They ask, for example, as the Etruria civilization does not exist any more, to whom the objects that are part of this great vanished civilization should be returned to? Should that be Italy?