Tangible and intangible cultural materials – art, craft, artefacts and human remains – have been hot property since the earliest clash of civilizations. Whether captured as a prize in war or forcibly acquired in the name of scientific enquiry, cultural relics no longer residing at their point of origin boast pride of place in contemporary cultural debate.
The public face of this debate is almost certainly best represented by the ‘Elgin’, or Parthenon Marbles , famously ‘appropriated’ from their native Greece by Lord Elgin, the British Ambassador in Constantinople, in the early 19th century.
