Who Owns the Past?
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 9.7 ACTIVITYWHO OWNS THE PAST?Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit: “Who Owns the Past?”, OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/1PurposeMuseums preserve and share cultural objects from many places for educational purposes. But many collections were built through conquest and colonialism. Who owns the past? How does history shape who has a right to which objects? Examine several cultural objects, and then take a position, listen to competing arguments, and revise claims. Process 1.Before you begin, your teacher might assign the following materials:•The "Lost" Kingdom of Benin •Preserving the Past•“Heists and Heritage: The Louvre Robbery and the Paradox of Stolen Museum Objects” 2.Review the nine object cards at the end of this activity. They each show an object and describe where it came from, where it is now, how it got there, and any ownership controversy. As you consider each case, ask yourself:•How was it acquired?•Who has a claim to it?•Is it sacred or connected to a cherished past? •Who should decide how it is displayed and interpreted?•Does legal ownership necessarily make continued possession fair?3.Complete this sentence to form a preliminary claim about who should own historical objects:A museum should return an object or ancestral remains when ____________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________.
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 9.7 ACTIVITYWHO OWNS THE PAST?24.Read each object description and complete the “My initial position” column of the table below. Choose one of the options below to decide what should be done with each object. Answer the associated question to explain your reasoning: •Return it: The object should be returned to the country, community, or descendants connected to it.Question: Who should receive the object and why?•Keep it: The museum should keep the object.Question: Why does the current institution have the strongest claim?•Share it: Create a shared arrangement, such as a long-term loan, rotating display, or joint ownership.Question: How would the sharing work, and who would make decisions?•It depends: More evidence is needed.Question: What does your decision depend on, and what additional evidence is needed?ObjectMy initial positionMy final positionBenin BronzeLaguna Pueblo PotAncestral Human Remains
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 9.7 ACTIVITYWHO OWNS THE PAST?3Egyptian Mummy: AsruElgin MarblesRosetta StoneSapphire DiademBronze Head of HadrianKoh-i-Noor Diamond5.Once you have completed the table, in pairs or small groups, discuss your position with your classmates and explain your reasoning. Record on the chart whether your position changed at all after hearing other arguments.
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 9.7 ACTIVITYWHO OWNS THE PAST?46.Revise the rule you wrote at the start of the activity based on the cases and arguments you considered:7.Choose one object card from the activity. Write one paragraph in response to this prompt:Where should this object or these remains stay, and who should have the authority to display and interpret them? Be sure to include these in your paragraph:•A clear claim.•At least two specific details from the object card.•The strongest reasonable counterclaim.•A response explaining why your position is more convincing or what additional evidence you would need to decide.Optional: You may use these sentence starters:•I think the _____ should...•The most important evidence is...•Someone who believes ______ might argue_________...•However...•I would reconsider my position if...•This case suggests that owning the past means...A museum should return an object or ancestral remains when ______________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 9.7 ACTIVITYWHO OWNS THE PAST?5Image credits, next section:•Benin Bronze, by The British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1898-0115-31 •Laguna Pueblo Pot, © and courtesy The Field Museum https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/connecting-past-and-present-native-truths-our-voices-our-stories•Ancestral Human Remains, © and courtesy of NPS Southeastern Archaeological Center. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nagpra/repatriation-of -human-remains.htm •An Egyptian Mummy: Asru, © and courtesy The Manchester Museum https://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/galleries/egypt-and-sudan•The Elgin Marbles, by The British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1816-0610-15•The Rosetta Stone, by The British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA24•The Sapphire Diadem https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010104977 •Bronze Head of Hadrian https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1848-1103-1 •The Koh-i-Noor Diamond, public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Queen_Mary%27s_Crown.png
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 9.7 ACTIVITYWHO OWNS THE PAST? CARDS6Benin BronzeBritish Museum, London Laguna Pueblo PotField Museum, ChicagoAncestral Human RemainsAmerican Museum of Natural History, New YorkBenin BronzeOrigin: Kingdom of Benin (present-day Nigeria), thirteenth to nineteenth centuries; made by court artists for the oba (king).Location now: British Museum, London.Journey: British troops looted it during the 1897 invasion of Benin; many objects were later sold or donated to museums.Ownership debate: Nigerian government and cultural institutions seek its return.Laguna Pueblo PotOrigin: Laguna Pueblo, about 1900; attributed to the artist Arroh-ah-och.Location now: Field Museum, Chicago.Journey: This pot is displayed in a permanent museum exhibit beside a vessel made by a contemporary Laguna Pueblo artist.Ownership debate: In response to Indigenous concerns about the Field Museum's claims of ownership, Indigenous advisers were invited to help choose the objects and decide how they would be displayed and how their stories should be told. This display emphasizes continuity between ancestral and living Pueblo artists.Ancestral Human RemainsOrigin: Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon. Several present-day Pueblo communities consider the people buried there their ancestors.Location now: American Museum of Natural History, New York.Journey: The Hyde Expedition excavated graves from 1896 to 1901 and removed human remains and funerary objects.Ownership debate: Pueblo communities seek repatriation. Federal laws require museums to remove these remains from display and work to return them to descendent communities. But the American Museum of Natural History has refused to return remains of many individuals on the grounds that they are too old to determine to which tribes they belong.
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 9.7 ACTIVITYWHO OWNS THE PAST? CARDS7An Egyptian Mummy: AsruManchester Museum, Manchester The Elgin MarblesBritish Museum, LondonThe Rosetta StoneBritish Museum, LondonAn Egyptian Mummy: AsruOrigin: Southern Egypt, about 700 BCE; her coffin names her parents as Tadiamun and Pa-Kush.Location now: Manchester Museum, England.Journey: The Garnett brothers bought her in Egypt in the early 1800s and shipped her to Manchester. Selling ancient funerary objects to foreigners was common at the time, and was legal under both Egyptian and international law. Asru was publicly unwrapped in 1825.Ownership debate: In response to public pressure, the museum began consulting visitors, Egyptian colleagues, and communities in 2025 about whether she should remain on display.The Elgin MarblesOrigin: The Parthenon in Athens, fifth century BCE; also called the Parthenon Sculptures.Location now: British Museum, London.Journey: Lord Elgin's workers removed them while Greece was under Ottoman rule from 1801 to 1805. Elgin claimed this was done with Ottoman permission, but no records survive.The British government bought the collection in 1816.Ownership debate: Greece seeks to reunify the art with the Parthenon site in Athens. The British Museum stresses its legal ownership and the value of the display to a global audience. The Rosetta StoneOrigin: Egypt, 196 BCE; its decree in three scripts helped scholars decipher hieroglyphs.Location now: British Museum, London.Journey: French soldiers found it in 1799 while Napoleon was in Egypt. After France’s defeat, it was transferred to Britain in 1801 and displayed in 1802.Ownership debate: Egyptians argue they had no voice in the transfer between two foreign empires. The museum stresses its worldwide importance and the value of public display in London.
OER PROJECT: WH ORIGINS / LESSON 9.7 ACTIVITYWHO OWNS THE PAST? CARDS8The Sapphire DiademLocation unknown (stolen from the Louvre, 2025)Bronze Head of HadrianBritish Museum, LondonThe Koh-i-Noor DiamondCrown Jewels, Tower of LondonThe Sapphire DiademOrigin: Paris, 1800–1825; French jewelers used sapphires mined in colonial-era Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka).Location now: Unknown; thieves stole it from the Louvre in Paris on October 19, 2025.Journey: This was worn by several queens and members of the Orleans family until the Louvre museum purchased it for France's national collection in 1985.Ownership debate: Its loss is treated as theft of French heritage, although it was royal property and its stones were mined in a distant colony. The diadem was made in France by French jewelers, but its sapphires were mined in Ceylon, (present-day Sri Lanka) during the 18th century. Ceylon was a Dutch and later British colony.Bronze Head of HadrianOrigin: Roman London, probably around 122 CE; once part of a larger-than-life statue of Emperor Hadrian.Location now: British Museum, London.Journey: Found in the River Thames near London Bridge; the museum purchased it in 1848. How it came to be in the river is unknown.Ownership debate: Hadrian was born in Hispania, ruled from Rome, and his statue was made in Britain. Neither Spain nor Italy has formally sought its return.The Koh-i- Noor DiamondOrigin: A diamond that passed among South Asian, Persian, Afghan, and Sikh rulers.Location now: Set in the Crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, part of the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London.Journey: After the British East India Company annexed Punjab in 1849, the Treaty of Lahore forced the 10-year-old Duleep Singh to surrender the diamond to Queen Victoria.Ownership debate: The diamond has been used as a symbol of power by the Mughal, Persian, Afghan, Sikh, and British empires. Today, governments in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran have each formally requested return. Britain has denied all requests, insisting the gem was acquired legally through treaty.