Your final draft of your paper should be approximately 5 pages long (can be longer if needed) and should include citations and a bibliography. Your essay should be organized with an introduction and thesis, a body of discussion in which you provide evidence and discussion that supports your thesis and includes several examples, and a conclusion.
Repatriation is the return of art and cultural objects to their countries of origin by their present owners. This phenomenon begs the question of who really owns antiquities? Can museums lay claim to an object when the originating country wants it back? Should objects that have been in museum collections for years, either with original permission or through illicit means, be returned without question to the country from which they came? Or do countries of origin retain no claim in perpetuity over ownership? In other words, is there a statute of limitations on ownership of antiquities that would dictate just how far back in history you go to determine the rightful owner of these disputed objects? Assuming some repatriation takes place, how might such a process affect the collections in museums currently? If repatriation is generally perceived to be a problem, how might we resolve this issue? What are the various factors that must be considered? Who are the parties involved?
Select several instances or possibilities for repatriation (even hypothetical examples) and address the questions above with the objective of bringing forth the complexity of this issue.
