The ‘Winged Victory of Samothrace’, regarded as one of the great surviving masterpieces of sculpture from the Hellenistic period, was unearthed by the French Consul to Turkey in 1883 and promptly shipped back to Paris.
It remains on display at the Louvre Museum. I was privileged to see it on a visit to the museum in 1990 but I have a couple of questions…
…where should it be?
and with the Louvre bursting at the seams with stolen artefacts,
…why all the fuss about the Elgin (Parthenon) Marbles?
Have Bag, Will Travel 
Personally, I would prefer the world’s great works of art to be in the safekeeping of the French and the English rather than the Greeks and the Turks, even though that is not a particularly PC thing to say.
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Yes, I agree, plenty of time to give them back later!
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I know we have chatted about this before and I am no expert on where historical artifacts should or should not be. Safekeeping is important but as someone visiting I would prefer they be in the country they were found. Strictly the tourist talking.
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There is too much in the Louvre anyway. It is not as bad as the Hermitage however, you need a whole week in there!
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I can relate to both perspectives already presented here. At the Parthenon, our tour guide bitterly lamented wicked England for not returning artifacts. Someone asked about acid rain, and the tour guide had to admit that ancient statues that had not been removed, had been damaged due to their inability to protect them in the past. There are strong arguments for both, imho.
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It will take a while to sort it all out!
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I have mixed feelings…I don’t really approve the actions of the sticky-fingered French, but I’d prefer to see a large collection in Paris than running all over Europe looking for collections from each country.
Besides, would the Greeks even be able to afford a new museum to house all of these artifacts if they were returned?
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They have one already. Purpose built to house the Elgin Marbles but almost empty. https://anotherbagmoretravel.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/the-acropolis-museum-in-athens/
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