'They're somebody's history.' Returning ancient artifacts to their rightful home

NPR

Published June 3, 2024 at 9:13 AM EDT

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A display of some of the pre-Columbian antiquities, which comprise the "Repatriation and Its Impact" exhibit at The Parthenon museum in Nashville. The artifacts will be returned to Mexico, when the exhibit concludes.

The Rosetta Stone, the Kohinoor diamond, sculptures from Greece's Parthenon known as the Elgin Marbles are all dazzling objects that bear the history of early civilizations.

But these objects were also taken by colonizers, and still remain on display in museum galleries far from their homes.

Over the past several years museums around the world have been reckoning with the looted treasures they have kept and benefited from.

Now one small museum in Nashville, Tennessee is returning ancient objects excavated in Mexico.

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