16 Pieces Of History The British Museum Still Refuses To Return

In the early 19th century, the Elgin Marbles, a collection of sculptures dating back 2500 years, were taken by a British diplomat from the Parthenon in Greece. He sold them to the British government, which then shipped them off to the British Museum. Believing the marbles were looted, the Greek government listed a dispute with UNESCO over their return, but the British government declined the organization’s attempt at mediation. Today, the Elgin Marbles remain in the British Museum, and discussions between the two countries regarding their return are in progress.

The Hoa Hakananai’a Head, a moai statue, was stolen from Orongo Easter Island in 1868 by a British Royal Navy ship crew and taken to the British Museum. The Rapa Nui people consider the statue as stolen and in 2018, the governor of Easter Island requested that the British Museum return it to them. Discussions to repatriate the statue have since stalled, and it remains in the British Museum.

In 1868, after capturing the city of Maqdala, the British brought back many royal treasures. Of these treasures, the regal and highly detailed gold Crown of Maqdala was the most valuable. Currently owned by the Victoria and Albert Museum, the crown has been the subject of restitution claims made by Ethiopia since 2007. Many other royal treasures, far less significant than the crown, have since been returned to Ethiopia.

The Lamassu is a statue of a winged lion or bull with a human head that was placed in front of the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal in Nimrud as a symbol of protection. Acquired by the British Museum in 1851, the statue dates back to 865 BC and was excavated by Austen Henry Layard. Other Lamassu statues are housed in museums across the world, such as the National Museum of Iraq and the Louvre Museum.

In the 1500s, a group of brass and bronze sculptures known as the Benin Bronzes was made in the West African Kingdom of Benin. Many of the pieces were used in ancestral rituals during that time. The artifacts were plundered by British troops in 1897 and were sent to the British Museum and other European institutions. Today, the Benin Royal Court has called for the return of the sculptures, but no plans have yet been made to fulfill its requests.

The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of a larger black basalt stone slab dating back to 196 BCE that was discovered by French troops in 1799. It contains a decree about King Ptolemy V written in Egyptian hieroglyphics, Demotic language, and Greek. The stone made its way to the British Museum in 1802 and remains one of its most famous pieces despite Egypt’s many attempts to reclaim it over the years.

Katsushika Hokusai is one of Japan’s most revered and innovative artists. Hokusai’s painting “Under the Waves off Kanagawa,” also known as “the Great Wave,” is considered his best work. The painting is a color woodblock print depicting an enormous wave crashing down on three fishing boats off the coast of Kanagawa. One of the surviving prints of "Under The Wave Off Kanagawa" and many of his other works are displayed at an exhibition called “The Great Picture Book of Everything” in the British Museum.

The Asante Gold Regalia comprises more than 200 gold items, including jewelry, royal insignia worn by the King of the Asante people, and badges worn by his officials. Many of the pieces were looted from Kumasi, the Asante capital, during the war in the 1800s. While some were sold to the British Museum, others formed part of a forced British indemnity payment. The remaining items were acquired by other museums and even some private collectors.

The Aboriginal Australian shield, presumably originating from the coastal regions of New South Wales, dates back to the late 1700s and was made from the bark of the red mangrove plant. It has a distinct hole near the center, most likely from being hit by a spear. Despite several requests from Aboriginal communities for its return to Australia, the shield remains at the British Museum in London.

The Lewis Chessmen are a group of chess pieces from the 12th century, carved from walrus ivory. After their discovery in Scotland in 1831 and exhibition that same year, 67 chessmen and 14 tablemen of the 94 objects available were purchased on behalf of the British Museum. As of today, 82 pieces are exhibited in the British Museum, 11 at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, with the last chess piece privately owned.

The British Museum houses one of the largest collections of animal mummies in the world, with around 500 examples of cats, crocodiles, fish, snakes, and more. Originating in Ancient Egypt, these mysterious mummified animals were excavated in large numbers across different sites in Egypt. The crocodile mummy excavated in 1895, at Kom Ombo, Egypt, hasn’t been on display at the British Museum for 75 years. This is due to the complex conservation processes required to keep it intact for future exhibitions.

The Oxus Treasure is a collection of 180 pieces of silver and gold that were found in the Oxus River between 1877 and 1880. Said to be from a larger collection of around 1500 items, the pieces date back to the 5th century BC. Currently, the British Museum holds the surviving collection, which includes a gold model chariot, a pair of armlets, and other metalwork.

In the 19th century, fragments of the Beard of the Sphinx of Giza were discovered in the debris surrounding the base of the iconic sculpture. According to the British Museum, the beard was likely an enhancement added to the Sphinx by King Thutmose IV. The piece is currently located in the British Museum while other fragments are housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

In 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion in Beijing, Captain Clarence Johnson acquired a silk scroll depicting a poetic narrative painting by the poet Zhang Hua. This scroll was called the Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies, and its text was aimed at correcting the behavior of an empress. Johnson then sold the scroll to the British Museum, which only displays it for six weeks every year due to its sensitivity to light.

This collection of 20 glazed tiles, made during the Ming Dynasty, once adorned the roofs of small buildings in a temple in Shanxi, China. Seen as a symbol of protection against fire, the tiles are arranged in two rows, one with yellow dragons and the other with blue dragons. The colors and designs of the tiles also symbolize Chinese beliefs in the powers of Yin and Yang. The British Museum acquired them in 2006, and they have been on display ever since.

The Tsavo Lions, also known as the Tsavo man-eaters, were a pair of maneless male lions in the Tsavo region of Kenya. They were responsible for over one hundred human fatalities on the Kenya-Uganda Railway in 1898. British Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson eventually did away with the lions in December that same year. Patterson kept their skins as rugs in his home until he sold them to the Field Museum of Natural History in 1924. Today, after being reconstructed, the lions are on display at the museum along with their skulls.