Today, I attend Lawrence Kaye‘s lecture which is about Turkey’s recovery of its cultural treasure.

Gold hippocampus brooch

Mr.Kaye’s efforts and commitment to to help other countries to recover their cultural antiquities are really admirable. Mr.Kaye help Turkey recover its “fabled Lydian Hoard antiquities, long held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art”(QC website). the Met bought these antiquities from dealers without knowing where do they obtain these treasure and the Met later display these antiquities in June 1984, mislabeling them as treasury from East Greek deliberately. When the authorities of Turkey demanded their antiquities return, the Met refused to comply. Turkey suit the Met in 1987 and after 6-years effort, Turkey finally get its “lost children” back in 1993.

In my opinion, the antiquities should definitely belong to the country of origin. Antiquities represent a country’s culture, history and part of its heritage. Illegal transaction of the antiquities should not be tolerated and indulged. The stealing of a country’s cultural treasure is like kidnapping someone’s child which violate both legal and moral rules. All nations must achieve a mutual recognition on carrying out policy or laws to punish the dishonorable behaviors of looting, robbing, stealing or illegally dealing of other countries’ antiquities. At the meantime, the country itself must carry out actions and policies to protect its cultural treasure. The antiquities looted during the war must be returned to the country of origin unless that country allows the usage of exhibit by other countries. Turkey is not the only country that is suffering the lost of its cultural treasure; many Asian countries lost massive of their cultural heritage during World War II. There are still many lost antiquities that are hold by foreign owners. However, hope is not gone. Some people living abroad voluntarily use their own money to buy those lost treasures and contribute them to their native country. Their are true heroes.