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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Joe2007, post: 2578198, member: 1262&quot;]My thoughts on this topic appear to align fairly closely to yours. I do not agree with repatriation unless there is strong reason to believe that the items were looted or stolen. The Elgin Marbles are a perfect example of the controversy in this since they appear to been have removed with permission of Greece&#039;s one-time overlord the Ottomans but to many Greeks were considered looted. Delegitimizing property ownership creates additional problems but we need to develop protocols for determining when items should be considered looted. Under the Vichy government in France large portions of the country were looted wholesale by the Germans</p><p><br /></p><p>I do not have any desire to collect Nazi items, although those that do should be allowed to do so since we live in a free society especially if the items are historical in nature brought back by returning soldiers. In my community there was a debate about several historical buildings that have swastikas&#039; in some of their antique tilework. There were activists agitating for the destruction of such tiles including in several ornate historic retail buildings and in a church. I don&#039;t think those outraged care that the swastika was used for hundreds of years as a symbol of peaceful origins before the Nazis improvised it for their own ends.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yesterday at a auction I was at there was a table full of Black Americana that sold for very high prices. I think eBay actions are causing more harm than good since there is more people seeking it out for financial windfall than previously and more collectors clamoring for it since they think it will be unavailable at some point. In the end such items become more cemented in the antique world.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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