Rescuing the Past: The Cultural Heritage Crusade

Jonathan Tokeley was contentiously convicted of ‘smuggling’ Egyptian antiquities in a landmark trial - one of a series which had devastating consequences for the antiquities market. The Cultural Heritage Crusade claims that ‘Source Countries’ have an indefeasible right to ancient artefacts found in their soil. And past acquisitions, like the Elgin Marbles, should be returned. Archaeologists widely accept this, and also the need for government ‘prohibitions’ to prevent the looting of the sites. But this makes Antiquity a plaything of the modern humbug - of national vanity, of antiwestern dogma, of political correctness, and the academic’s disdain for the very idea of profit. None of which will prevent the looting. The Cultural Heritage Crusade , in short, is not an answer to the problem. It may actually be the problem. This book is both a philosophical analysis and a demonstration - in one country, Egypt - of its horrific consequences.