Turkey and Iraq Make Archaeological Demands

In my First Person column in the September/October issue, I discussed the recent demands by Mediterranean countries for the return of antiquities from Western museums. I argued that sometimes a particular culture might have a claim superior to that of the country where an object was found.a As a hypothetical, I put the case of Egypt’s demanding from Israel the return of the first Tablets of the Law that Moses shattered when he came down from Mt. Sinai and found the Israelites worshiping the golden calf. Would Egypt have a claim superior to Israel’s because the tablets were found […]