아프리카ㆍ중동

Since July 2003, Egypt has been launching a campaign for the return of antiquities from countries including the United States, Britain, and Germany. This campaign started for an exhibition to celebrate the one hundredth birthday of Cairo's Egypt Museum. Dr. Zahi Hawass, the Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has been leading the campaign. Egypt has made public demands not only for the return of a bust of Queen Nefertiti housed in Berlin and a statue of Queen Hatshepshut at the Metropolitan Arts Museum, but also for the Rosetta Stone, which has been housed in the British Museum for over two hundred years. It is hard to say whether Egypt's efforts for the return of its stolen cultural properties will succeed or not because the problem is perhaps the most intractable and contentious part of the bitter 'art war'. There are two approaches to addressing the issue: "cultural nationalism" and "cultural internationalism." Clearly under cultural nationalism, Egypt's cultural property belongs to Egypt. Under cultural internationalism, Egypt's cultural property should remain in the various international museums and many private collections in which it is currently housed. But it is necessary to find another approach to solve the problem. because of the dichotomy of cultural nationalism and cultural internationalism. It's worth while mentioning here that there is a third approach referred to as the "reciprocal perspective." This alternative puts the emphasis on the aims of both sides by creating agreements that transfer ownership back to Egypt, while at the same time vesting physical ownership in the museums that currently have possession of the cultural properties. To solve this problem with balance needs a compromise between Egypt, the source country and the foreign countries that houses its artifacts.