“A product of empire, originally built on racial hierarchies, cultural hierarchies, social Darwinism”.
Stephen Welsh, curator of Living Cultures at Manchester Museum
Just to close things off:
1. Winged Victory, in possession of the French and claimed by Greece
2. Rosetta Stone, in possession of the British and claimed by Egypt
3. Samsat Stele, in possession of the British and claimed by the Turkey
4. Bust of Nefertiti, in possession of the Germans and claimed by the Egypt
5. Venus de Milo, in possession of the French and claimed by Greece
One final piece of trivia; the Samsat Stele is claimed by Turkey, the hole in the middle of it is because sometime in the past someone made alterations to use it as a vine press. No wonder the British Museum thinks they should continue to look after it!
Have Bag, Will Travel 
Interesting. As is this post that dropped into my in box today, about the new Museum of Rescued Art in Rome, which will showcase pieces taken, and rescued from private hands, which is even worse than their being taken from public display: https://travelbetweenthepages.com/2022/06/21/museum-to-the-rescue/
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Thanks for the link.
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You are so right about who is capable of looking after things. Neither Egypt, Greece nor Turkey have had protracted periods of stable, democratic, government, and I don’t think they could do the job anywhere near as well as France, Germany or the UK, all three of which attract serious tourists in much bigger numbers than Egypt, Greece or Turkey.
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I think they should go back, the Museum has enough British history to exhibit.
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That’s a fair point. We watch “Secrets of the Museum”, and I was very surprised to see just how many things were in storage.
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Interesting addition, Andrew
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I think they should all be returned an in the meantime, well looked after
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Absolutely. Good point.
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