Two bits of recent news highlighted a major global shift in this anti-colonialist era, as well as the considerable distance still left to go. Italy last month agreed to repatriate 10 ancient terracotta figures recently smuggled out of Turkey, showing how western states and institutions are increasingly willing to return goods acquired through questionable means.
A couple of weeks later, however, the British Museum mounted the fashion show of a British-Turkish designer in front of the Elgin Marbles, a collection of ancient marble statues and bas-reliefs Athens wants the UK to return to their original home, the Parthenon. In response to the fashion event, Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said the UK showed “zero respect for the masterpieces” – unwittingly touching on the line western institutions appear unwilling to cross.
In a bit of reparative justice for western imperialism, museums have been facing a reckoning in recent years for the potentially criminal tactics many used to obtain valuables. “The Indiana Jones era is over,” is how The New York Times put it, citing dozens of repatriations by US institutions. Turkey, one of the cradles of human civilisation, has been a key beneficiary of this shift, welcoming the return of more than 3,000 artefacts last year.
Sending antiquities home, even the masterpieces, is the right thing to do
Several Turkish requests are still pending, the two most pressing being the Pergamon Altar and the bronze head of Emperor Septimius Severus. The latter has been at a Copenhagen museum for more than 50 years after being looted, according to Turkey, during a 1960s excavation. Ankara says it is the head of the seven-foot-tall headless bust it received from the Met last year, while Denmark says it needs to compare the breakage lines to be sure.
The Pergamon Altar, built on an acropolis terrace in the Kingdom of Pergamon, which stretched across Turkey’s present-day Izmir province from 300 to 30BC, is significantly larger – and a much bigger deal. Some 36 meters by 33 meters, the reconstructed altar takes up an entire hall of Berlin’s Pergamon Museum, a wildly popular art institution in the centre of the German capital that, yes, is named after the altar.
Turkey is far from alone. We might start with the Elgin Marbles, which the UK acquired while Greece was under Ottoman rule. Athens argues, quite reasonably, that the governing Ottomans lacked the authority to dispense with their heritage.
Egyptian archaeologists recently launched a petition urging the UK to return the Rosetta Stone, an ancient slab of inscriptions that a Frenchman used to decipher hieroglyphics two centuries ago, expanding our understanding of ancient Egypt.
Egyptologist Monica Hanna is leading a campaign urging Egypt to request the repatriation of a 3,000-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti, pointing out that Adolf Hitler vetoed the bust’s planned return in the 1930s. The bust remains on display at Berlin’s Egyptian Museum, which is home to thousands of Egyptian antiquities.
Ghana recently won the return of its crown jewels, said to be plundered by British explorers some 150 years ago. But several African observers are upset that the return is only temporary, a three-year loan.
The world’s largest repatriation case concerns the so-called Benin Bronzes, hundreds of bronze sculptures and figures from what is today southern Nigeria. Nigerian officials have been calling for their return for more than a decade, and in the past few years have persuaded Germany, the UK and other countries to repatriate more than a thousand artefacts.
This represents a sea-change from the 19th and most of the 20th century, when western museums aggressively pursued artefacts with little concern for their ownership histories. The shift began with the 1970 passage of a Unesco convention that redefined acceptable behaviours on acquisition and best practices for curbing import of stolen items.
Change did not happen overnight, and even in the 2000s many curators continued to turn a blind eye to concerns about provenance. The tipping point may have been a Kim Kardashian dress.
In 2017, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art paid nearly $4 million for the gold-plated coffin of the ancient Egyptian priest Nedjemankh. The next year, the reality TV star turned up at the Met Gala in a gold dress and posed next to the coffin for photos, which went around the world and sparked an investigation that found the export licence had been forged and the coffin smuggled across the Middle East and Europe.
Two years after buying it, the Met returned the coffin, setting off a cascade of repatriations. The line now appears to be the charismatic masterpieces – tentpole works that all but define a museum. In fact, British museums are constrained by a law that requires them to gain authorisation before giving away any of their principal holdings. This would include the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles and, in Germany, the Pergamon Altar.
Take away the altar, museum supporters fear, and it’s not clear what’s left. Similarly, if Berlin’s Egyptian Museum agreed to return Nefertiti’s bust, how could it then deny the return of countless other Egyptian artefacts? Soon the museum might have little reason to exist.
Some who oppose repatriation today point to exhibitions like the Met’s crowd-pleasing Temple of Dendur, donated by Egypt in the 1960s, to argue that western experts often have superior knowledge and a better understanding of how to care for and display them.
This is not entirely accurate, as the British Museum is caught in an epic scandal after a curator there apparently sold hundreds of museum objects on the black market. More importantly, this view is condescending, even racist, like me telling a Turkish friend that I know their Ottoman grandfather better than they do because I read a few books.
Thankfully, repatriation may be having a moment. On the weekend, the Berlin International Film Festival gave its grand prize to “Dahomey,” a documentary about 26 looted artworks France returned to Benin a few years ago. Filmmaker Mati Diop’s innovation is that the artefacts, which include two centuries-old statues of kings, are given voice, becoming characters who narrate their return home.
This twist helps illuminate the injustice. If all the western-held artefacts and antiquities were mysteriously brought to life, our museums would suddenly feel not like zoos, as depicted in the Night at the Museum movies, but like prisons, keeping all their foreign guests under lock and key rather than free to roam on their own recognisance.
Brilliant art and artefacts drive economic activity and cultural growth, as these museums and curators well know. We in the West have benefited greatly from these objects, but we have held on to them for long enough. Prized treasures will be lost, attendance might fall, and some museums may even be forced to close, but sending antiquities back home, even the masterpieces, is the right thing to do. After all, they were never ours to begin with.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
10 tips for entry-level job seekers
- Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
- Keep track of the job trends in your sector through the news. Apply for job alerts at your dream organisations and the types of jobs you want – LinkedIn uses AI to share similar relevant jobs based on your selections.
- Double check that you’ve highlighted relevant skills on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
- For most entry-level jobs, your resume will first be filtered by an applicant tracking system for keywords. Look closely at the description of the job you are applying for and mirror the language as much as possible (while being honest and accurate about your skills and experience).
- Keep your CV professional and in a simple format – make sure you tailor your cover letter and application to the company and role.
- Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
- Don’t be afraid to reach outside your immediate friends and family to other acquaintances and let them know you are looking for new opportunities.
- Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
- Prepare for online interviews using mock interview tools. Even before landing interviews, it can be useful to start practising.
- Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.
Arda Atalay, head of Mena private sector at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Rudy Bier, managing partner of Kinetic Business Solutions and Ben Kinerman Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz
The specs
Engine: 3-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 400hp
Torque: 475Nm
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Price: From Dh215,900
On sale: Now
Company%20Profile
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Scoreline
Germany 2
Werner 9', Sane 19'
Netherlands 2
Promes 85', Van Dijk 90'
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
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The%20specs
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SPECS
Nissan 370z Nismo
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Transmission: seven-speed automatic
Power: 363hp
Torque: 560Nm
Price: Dh184,500
TOURNAMENT INFO
Opening fixtures:
Friday, Oct 5
8pm: Kabul Zwanan v Paktia Panthers
Saturday, Oct 6
4pm: Nangarhar Leopards v Kandahar Knights
8pm: Kabul Zwanan v Balkh Legends
Tickets
Tickets can be bought online at https://www.q-tickets.com/apl/eventlist and at the ticket office at the stadium.
TV info
The tournament will be broadcast live in the UAE on OSN Sports.
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (c), Chamani Senevirathne (vc), Subha Srinivasan, NIsha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Esha Oza, Ishani Senevirathne, Heena Hotchandani, Keveesha Kumari, Judith Cleetus, Chavi Bhatt, Namita D’Souza.
If you go
The flights
Emirates (www.emirates.com) and Etihad (www.etihad.com) both fly direct to Bengaluru, with return fares from Dh 1240. From Bengaluru airport, Coorg is a five-hour drive by car.
The hotels
The Tamara (www.thetamara.com) is located inside a working coffee plantation and offers individual villas with sprawling views of the hills (tariff from Dh1,300, including taxes and breakfast).
When to go
Coorg is an all-year destination, with the peak season for travel extending from the cooler months between October and March.
Tributes from the UAE's personal finance community
• Sebastien Aguilar, who heads SimplyFI.org, a non-profit community where people learn to invest Bogleheads’ style
“It is thanks to Jack Bogle’s work that this community exists and thanks to his work that many investors now get the full benefits of long term, buy and hold stock market investing.
Compared to the industry, investing using the common sense approach of a Boglehead saves a lot in costs and guarantees higher returns than the average actively managed fund over the long term.
From a personal perspective, learning how to invest using Bogle’s approach was a turning point in my life. I quickly realised there was no point chasing returns and paying expensive advisers or platforms. Once money is taken care off, you can work on what truly matters, such as family, relationships or other projects. I owe Jack Bogle for that.”
• Sam Instone, director of financial advisory firm AES International
"Thought to have saved investors over a trillion dollars, Jack Bogle’s ideas truly changed the way the world invests. Shaped by his own personal experiences, his philosophy and basic rules for investors challenged the status quo of a self-interested global industry and eventually prevailed. Loathed by many big companies and commission-driven salespeople, he has transformed the way well-informed investors and professional advisers make decisions."
• Demos Kyprianou, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"Jack Bogle for me was a rebel, a revolutionary who changed the industry and gave the little guy like me, a chance. He was also a mentor who inspired me to take the leap and take control of my own finances."
• Steve Cronin, founder of DeadSimpleSaving.com
"Obsessed with reducing fees, Jack Bogle structured Vanguard to be owned by its clients – that way the priority would be fee minimisation for clients rather than profit maximisation for the company.
His real gift to us has been the ability to invest in the stock market (buy and hold for the long term) rather than be forced to speculate (try to make profits in the shorter term) or even worse have others speculate on our behalf.
Bogle has given countless investors the ability to get on with their life while growing their wealth in the background as fast as possible. The Financial Independence movement would barely exist without this."
• Zach Holz, who blogs about financial independence at The Happiest Teacher
"Jack Bogle was one of the greatest forces for wealth democratisation the world has ever seen. He allowed people a way to be free from the parasitical "financial advisers" whose only real concern are the fat fees they get from selling you over-complicated "products" that have caused millions of people all around the world real harm.”
• Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"In an industry that’s synonymous with greed, Jack Bogle was a lone wolf, swimming against the tide. When others were incentivised to enrich themselves, he stood by the ‘fiduciary’ standard – something that is badly needed in the financial industry of the UAE."
Countries recognising Palestine
France, UK, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Belgium, Malta, Luxembourg, San Marino and Andorra
UAE squad
Esha Oza (captain), Al Maseera Jahangir, Emily Thomas, Heena Hotchandani, Indhuja Nandakumar, Katie Thompson, Lavanya Keny, Mehak Thakur, Michelle Botha, Rinitha Rajith, Samaira Dharnidharka, Siya Gokhale, Sashikala Silva, Suraksha Kotte, Theertha Satish (wicketkeeper) Udeni Kuruppuarachchige, Vaishnave Mahesh.
UAE tour of Zimbabwe
All matches in Bulawayo
Friday, Sept 26 – First ODI
Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI
Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI
Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI
Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I
Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
HIJRA
Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
Scotland's team:
15-Sean Maitland, 14-Darcy Graham, 13-Nick Grigg, 12-Sam Johnson, 11-Byron McGuigan, 10-Finn Russell, 9-Ali Price, 8-Magnus Bradbury, 7-Hamish Watson, 6-Sam Skinner, 5-Grant Gilchrist, 4-Ben Toolis, 3-Willem Nel, 2-Stuart McInally (captain), 1-Allan Dell
Replacements: 16-Fraser Brown, 17-Gordon Reid, 18-Simon Berghan, 19-Jonny Gray, 20-Josh Strauss, 21-Greig Laidlaw, 22-Adam Hastings, 23-Chris Harris
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Turkish Ladies
Various artists, Sony Music Turkey
