In 2006, Neil MacGregor, then director of the British Museum, confidently asserted “repatriation is yesterday’s question”. He was speaking against the backdrop of a loan of historic east African artefacts to the National Museums of Kenya. MacGregor argued that circulating historic artefacts in such a way made issues of ownership redundant. At the time, others disagreed; 12 years later, the question is emphatically today’s.
2006年,時(shí)任大英博物館(British Museum)館長(zhǎng)尼爾?麥格雷戈(Neil MacGregor)曾自信地?cái)嘌裕皻w還是昨天的問題”。他是在談及出借給肯尼亞國(guó)家博物館(National Museums of Kenya)的一批有歷史意義的東非文物時(shí)說這番話的。麥格雷戈辯稱,以這種方式交流歷史文物,使得所有權(quán)討論變得多余。當(dāng)時(shí)就有人不同意他的看法;12年后,歸還文物絕對(duì)是今天的問題。