Cultural heritage ownership issues

International Herald Tribune

The IHT, which tends to be very good at picking up on heritage management issues, has focused on underwater archaeology in this piece. It is not specific to Egypt, but the topic certainly has relevance to global heritage issues, and may be of interest to some visitors:

In what may become the biggest underwater find ever, Odyssey Marine Explorations, a commercial operation from Tampa, Florida, has reportedly hauled 17 tons of gold and silver from a ship widely believed to be the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes that was sunk by a British warship off the coast of Portugal in October 1804. The company claims ownership of its find. And, of course, Spain is hiring lawyers and preparing its legal claim to the trove, claiming a sovereign nation's right over its cultural heritage.

It's clearly going to be a protracted legal battle, but we think it would only be right to let another set of plaintiffs stake their claim to the treasure, too: Spain's former colonies in Latin America, where the loot was looted in the first place. . . .

But if Greece can insist on the ownership of the Elgin Marbles, which Lord Elgin took from the Parthenon to ship to the British Museum in 1801 - when Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire - Peru surely has a shot at the gold of Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes.

See the above page for the full story.