Restitution

Turkey claims stele in British Museum

Despite a lack of evidence suggesting that the basalt stele was excavated illegally, the Turkish government are making a bid to regain the artefact

Books: The view from eastern Europe on restitution

These essays emanate from a series of Polish conferences

Metropolitan to return antiquities to Italy

20 items that were looted or likely stolen are to be restituted

Mask on display at St Louis Art Museum "belongs to Egypt”

Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, is asking the museum to return an antiquity he says was looted from Saqqara

Parthenonarchive

Germany's Heidelberg University returns Parthenon fragment to Greece

This is the first time a piece of the ancient building has returned to Athens

UK museums can now return human remains

The shift in policy follows over 30 recent claims for restitution

Museum inaction on restitution is undermining public trust

Adrian Ellis, director of AEA Consulting, talks on the threat this poses to the perceived legitimacy of cultural institutions

UK museums face controversial Ethiopian legacy: The Maqdala materials at the British Museum, the V&A, and the British Library

The Art Newspaper reveals that sacred Maqdala tablets are hidden away in a sealed store of the British Museum

V&A sends stolen monstrance on long-term loan to Spain

The 16th-century silver object had been taken from a church in Toro in 1890

Swedish museum faces Russian restitution claim

The Konstmuseum in Malmö allegedly kept works lent to the gallery before the outbreak of the First World War

Iranarchive

Iran takes out injunction to block Christie's sale of Palace of Xerxes relief fragment

Iran argues that the artefact was acquired through criminal means, although their failure to speak out when the fragment went to auction previously may undermine their case

Benevento rejoices at news of looted missal’s return from the British Library

An investigation by The Art Newspaper led to the request for restitution of the 12th-century prayer book

Sinai monks in historic agreement with British Library over Codex Sinaiticus

Ownership dispute has been set aside for joint study and digitisation of the world’s oldest bible

Holy tabots to be transferred from British Museum to Ethiopian church

Conversely, the University of Edinburgh has ruled against returning their own war loot

Ethiopian restitution claims at the British Museum: The museum responds

Update on requests for information regarding objects seized at battle of Maqdala

Ethiopian restitution claims at the British Museum: The Art Newspaper Investigates

British Museum holds collection of objects seized at battle of Maqdala

War provenance art: a growing source of supply in the market

Christie’s follows Sotheby’s and appoints a director of restitution

Ukraine returns Koenigs’ drawings

But the 139 works go to Dutch State, not collector’s heirs

British Museum director Neil MacGregor calls for laws that would encourage lending Aboriginal artefacts

As two objects are detained in Victoria, MacGregor believes something good could come out of the present confusion

How Britain tried to use the Cyrus Cylinder for political gain

As The British Museum prepares to loan the Cyrus Cylinder to Iran, The Art Newspaper remembers the Persian antiquity's first visit to its home nation in 1971

Nazi lootarchive

Bavaria reveals its paintings from Göring’s collection

The State collection is the first in Germany to publish the source of works acquired during the Nazi era

Newsarchive

Iran returns war booty to Kuwait

The works were seized in 1999 in western Iran, near the Turkish border

July 2004archive

A portrait, person by person, item by item, of a society wiped out

This important book gives a full documentation for the Jewish art collectors of Vienna whose goods and lives were targeted by the Nazis

While Tehran and the West clash over Iran's nuclear programme, their museums keep communication diplomatic

The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago's decision to restitute a set of 300 ancient clays tablets to Iran is proof of strengthening ties

Incoming Russian minister dismisses German restitution claims

Alexander Sokolov does not seem interested in returning looted art