> they should reach out through official channels and negotiate their return In some cases, they do (depending upon what you mean by official and negotiate):

> they should reach out through official channels and negotiate their return In some cases, they do (depending upon what you mean by official and negotiate): > In 2013, for instance, two of the famed zodiac heads, the rabbit and the rat, from the estate of the French designer Yves Saint Laurent, were handed over after a planned auction was scuttled. Officials in China told Christie's, the auction house, that if the heads were ever sold off, there would be "serious effects" on the firm's business. (Not long after the heads were returned, Christie's became the first international fine-art auction house to receive a license to operate independently in China.)