#museum-incidents

#museum-incidents

Art UK has taken it as its mission to digitally unite one million artworks from 3,500 institutions. This free-to-all portal connects everyone with the UK's public art collections.

A new law, approved in January, will see the establishment of a special department within Greece's Ministry of Culture to tackle offenses ranging from fake artworks to antiquities trafficking.

"Until recently, there was no specific legislation addressing the forgery of artworks and collectibles. Instead, these cases fell under the 'smoother' general provisions of the criminal code concerning fraud and forgery, which required proof of a financial transaction in order for an offence to be established."

The new webpage, entitled 'How have objects come to be in the V&A?', points out that for some objects, their journeys have involved known histories of violence, coercion or injustice, while for others there remains uncertainty over exactly how they came to be here.

The significant number of ancestors held in UK museums is extremely distressing and symbolic of the colonial origins of these collections. We hope that the responses gathered by The Guardian will be shared with the relevant communities to support them in bringing their ancestors home.

Bregman claims, 'Today the whole of Europe risks turning into one big Venice, a beautiful open-air museum. A great destination for Chinese and American tourists. A place to admire what was once the centre of the world.' This statement encapsulates the concern that Europe is losing its cultural significance.

"The silver price is high... but for us it is of course far more than the silver price," the museum's chairman Ernst Boesveld told The Art Newspaper. "It is about the stories behind every mustard pot, it is history and it is cultural heritage. We are enormously disappointed and angry."

When Thomas Jefferson wrote about the "inalienable" rights of man in the US Declaration of Independence 250 years ago, it's possible he lifted the term from the French. And long before it was ever used as an adjective to describe human rights, it defined royal property. To this day, "inalienability" remains a cornerstone of public collections in France-and many other countries-impacting museums and their ability to deaccession, including for purposes of restitution.