No one wants to open the floodgates by establishing a principle that everything plundered must be repatriated. But one court case could do just thatFor anyone with a liberal bone in their body,a walk around the British Museum is an uncomfortable experience. The Parthenon marbles and the Rosetta stone are only the best known examples of wonders gained by plunder. The Chinese government claims the museum holds 23000 artefacts looted in the 19th century from Beijing alone.
Asking for the return of these objects is something of a ritual that states observe with solemn regularity. The latest such attempt, however, and comes not from a government but a group of Bollywood stars and businessmen. They are to initiate proceedings in London’s tall court to return the 105-carat Koh-i-Noor diamond,taken in the mid-19th century by the East India Company as a token of its newly established colonial rule in Punjab.
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Source: theguardian.com