Pope Francis, photographed at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican in December 2021. On December 16, the Vatican announced that the pope had decided to return three fragments of the Parthenon Sculptures, held for centuries by its museums, as an ecumenical gesture honoring the archbishop of Greece. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Quirinale.it.

In ecumenical nod, Pope returns Greece’s Parthenon Sculptures

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Pope Francis, photographed at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican in December 2021. On December 16, the Vatican announced that the pope had decided to return three fragments of the Parthenon Sculptures, held for centuries by its museums, as an ecumenical gesture honoring the archbishop of Greece. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Quirinale.it.

Pope Francis, photographed at the Apostolic Palace in December 2021. On December 16, the Vatican announced that the pope had decided to return three fragments of the Parthenon Sculptures, held for centuries by its museums, as an ecumenical gesture honoring the archbishop of Greece. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Quirinale.it.

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis has decided to send back to Greece the three fragments of Parthenon Sculptures that the Vatican Museums have held for centuries, the Vatican announced on December 16.

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German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (right), photographed with U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken during a November 2022 meeting un Munster, Germany. Baerbock will personally return 20 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria during a trip scheduled for the week of December 18. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit the U.S. Department of State. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

Germany’s foreign minister to personally return 20 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

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German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (right), photographed with U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken during a November 2022 meeting un Munster, Germany. Baerbock will personally return 20 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria during a trip scheduled for the week of December 18. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit the U.S. Department of State. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (right), photographed with U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken during a November 2022 meeting in Munster, Germany. Baerbock will personally return 20 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria during a trip scheduled for the week of December 18. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit the U.S. Department of State. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

BERLIN (AP) – Germany’s foreign minister will personally take 20 artifacts looted by Europeans during colonial times back to Nigeria when she visits to Africa’s most populous country next week, her spokesman said December 16. The symbolic gesture follows an agreement earlier this year between Berlin and Abuja that will see all 514 so-called Benin Bronzes held in German museums handed back to Nigeria.

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Exterior of the Athens Museum of Cycladic Art, photographed in February 2021. The museum is hosting a display of ancient Greek artifacts that were illegally excavated and are being returned from the collection of an American billionaire. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit George E. Koronaios. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Greek museum displays first batch of artworks recouped from US

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Exterior of the Athens Museum of Cycladic Art, photographed in February 2021. The museum is hosting a display of ancient Greek artifacts that were illegally excavated and are being returned from the collection of an American billionaire. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit George E. Koronaios. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Exterior of the Athens Museum of Cycladic Art, photographed in February 2021. The museum is hosting a display of ancient Greek artifacts that were illegally excavated and are being returned from the collection of an American billionaire. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit George E. Koronaios. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) – It’s a first symbolic step in a homecoming that will long outlast the 10-year Odyssey of ancient myth. For decades, an important part of Greece’s cultural heritage sparkled only for the very few in a U.S. billionaire’s private collection, until a groundbreaking deal for its gradual return to Athens. Now 15 of the prehistoric masterpieces have gone on public view for the first time in a temporary display in Athens, ahead of their final return, together with the remaining 146 works, by the year 2048.

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Part of the group of ancient Greek sculptures known as the Elgin Marbles, aka the Parthenon Sculptures, photographed on display at the British Museum in August 2006. On December 3, a Greek newspaper claimed that museum officials and the Greek prime minister had conducted secret talks regarding the possible return of the sculptures. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Urban. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

British Museum reportedly in talks with Greece re: Elgin Marbles

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Part of the group of ancient Greek sculptures known as the Elgin Marbles, aka the Parthenon Sculptures, photographed on display at the British Museum in May 2014. On December 3, a Greek newspaper claimed that museum officials and the Greek prime minister had conducted secret talks regarding the possible return of the sculptures. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Carole Raddato. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Part of the group of ancient Greek sculptures known as the Elgin Marbles, aka the Parthenon Sculptures, photographed on display at the British Museum in May 2014. On December 3, a Greek newspaper claimed that museum officials and the Greek prime minister had conducted secret talks regarding the possible return of the sculptures. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Carole Raddato. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

LONDON (AP) – The British Museum has pledged not to dismantle its collection, following a report that the institution’s chairman has held secret talks with Greece’s prime minister regarding the return of the Parthenon Sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles. The report by the Greek newspaper Ta Nea is the latest twist in the long-running dispute centering on the ownership of the ancient sculptures, which originally stood on the Acropolis in Athens and have been part of the British Museum’s collection since 1816.

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The famed Rosetta Stone as it appeared in a 1922 book of the same name published by the British Museum. As the world marks the bicentenary of the translation of the hieroglyphs on the stone, Egyptians are calling for it to be returned to their country. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, which regards the image as being in the public domain in the United States because it was published or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office before January 1, 1927.

Egyptians call on British Museum to return Rosetta stone

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The famed Rosetta Stone as it appeared in a 1922 book of the same name published by the British Museum. As the world marks the bicentenary of the translation of the hieroglyphs on the stone, Egyptians are calling for it to be returned to their country. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, which regards the image as being in the public domain in the United States because it was published or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office before January 1, 1927.

The famed Rosetta stone as it appeared in a 1922 book of the same name published by the British Museum. As the world marks the bicentenary of the translation of the hieroglyphs on the stone, Egyptians are calling for it to be returned to their country. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, which regards the image as being in the public domain in the United States because it was published or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office before January 1, 1927.

CAIRO (AP) – The debate focusing on who owns ancient artifacts has been an increasing challenge to museums across Europe and America, and the spotlight has fallen on the most-visited piece in the British Museum: the Rosetta stone.

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Exterior of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, taken in June 2019. On September 29, the museum returned a millennium-old Christian manuscript to Greece after learning it had been stolen from the Eikosiphoinissa Monastery in 1917. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Farragutful. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

US museum returns rare 1,000-year-old manuscript to Greece

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Exterior of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, taken in June 2019. On September 29, the museum returned a millennium-old Christian manuscript to Greece after learning it had been stolen from the Eikosiphoinissa Monastery in 1917. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Farragutful. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

Exterior of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, taken in June 2019. On September 29, the museum returned a millennium-old Christian manuscript to Greece after learning it had been stolen from the Eikosiphoinissa Monastery in 1917. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Farragutful. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

ATHENS, Greece (AP) – A U.S. museum has returned a valuable 1,000-year-old Christian manuscript to a monastery in northern Greece it was looted from by Bulgarian forces more than a century ago, together with hundreds of other documents and artifacts.

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Whistle with the Maize God emerging from a flower. Mexico, Late Classic period (600–900). Ceramic, pigment, H. 8 1/8in. (20.7cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Michael C. Rockefeller memorial collection, bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979. (1979.206.728)

Ancient art featuring gods of the Maya showcased at the Met

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Whistle with the Maize God emerging from a flower. Mexico, Late Classic period (600–900). Ceramic, pigment, H. 8 1/8in. (20.7cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Michael C. Rockefeller memorial collection, bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979. (1979.206.728)

Whistle with the Maize God emerging from a flower. Mexico, Late Classic period (600–900). Ceramic, pigment, H. 8 1/8in. (20.7cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Michael C. Rockefeller memorial collection, bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979. (1979.206.728)

NEW YORK — In Maya art — one of the greatest artistic traditions of the ancient Americas — the gods are depicted in all stages of life: as infants, as adults at the peak of their maturity and influence, and finally, as they age. The gods could perish, and some were born anew, providing a model of regeneration and resilience. Opening November 21 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and continuing through April 2, 2023, the exhibition Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art will bring together nearly 100 rarely seen masterpieces and recent discoveries in diverse media — from the monumental to the miniature — that depict episodes in the life cycle of the gods, from the moment of their birth to resplendent transformations as blossoming flowers or fearsome creatures of the night.

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Panoramic view of San Casicano dei Bagni in Italy, taken in June 2015. An archaeological dig in the township near Siena has revealed about two dozen bronze figurines that promise to reshape what we know about Etruscan and Roman history. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit LigaDue. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Discovery of bronzes rewrites Italy’s Etruscan-Roman history

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Panoramic view of San Casicano dei Bagni in Italy, taken in June 2015. An archaeological dig in the township near Siena has revealed about two dozen bronze figurines that promise to reshape what we know about Etruscan and Roman history. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit LigaDue. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Panoramic view of San Casicano dei Bagni in Italy, taken in June 2015. An archaeological dig in the township near Siena has revealed about two dozen bronze figurines that promise to reshape what we know about Etruscan and Roman history. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit LigaDue. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

ROME (AP) – Italian authorities on November 8 announced the extraordinary discovery of 2,000-year-old bronze statues in an ancient Tuscan thermal spring and said the find will “rewrite history” about the transition from the Etruscan civilization to the Roman Empire. The discovery, in the sacred baths of the San Casciano dei Bagni archaeological dig near Siena, is one of the most significant ever in the Mediterranean and certainly the most important since the 1972 underwater discovery of the famed Riace bronze warriors, said Massimo Osanna, the Culture Ministry’s director of museums.

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US agents in Memphis seize shipped ancient Egyptian artifact

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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in Memphis, Tenn., seized an ancient Egyptian canopic jar lid on August 17, which had been shipped from Europe to a private buyer in the United States. Image courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Federal agents in Memphis have seized a potentially 3,000-year-old ancient Egyptian artifact that was shipped in from Europe.

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The Museum of Cycladic art in Athens, photographed in February 2021. On August 30, a spokesman for the Greek government announced a deal for the eventual return of 161 ancient Greek artifacts from a U.S. billionaire’s private collection, which will be exhibited at the Athens museum later in 2022. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit George E. Koronaios. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Greece heralds deal to recoup 161 ancient treasures from US

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The Museum of Cycladic art in Athens, photographed in February 2021. On August 30, a spokesman for the Greek government announced a deal for the eventual return of 161 ancient Greek artifacts from a U.S. billionaire’s private collection, which will be exhibited at the Athens museum later in 2022. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit George E. Koronaios. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.


The Museum of Cycladic art in Athens, photographed in February 2021. On August 30, a spokesman for the Greek government announced a deal for the eventual return of 161 ancient Greek artifacts from a U.S. billionaire’s private collection, which will be exhibited at the Athens museum later in 2022. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit George E. Koronaios. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Greece has struck a complex deal for the eventual return from a U.S. billionaire’s private collection of 161 top-quality ancient Greek artifacts dating from more than 4,000 years ago, marking a new approach in the country’s efforts to reclaim its cultural heritage.

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