That's really not a fair account. Nobody in Egypt, Iraq or Iran was asked if they wanted Britain to run their country. British archaeologists took whatever they

That's really not a fair account. Nobody in Egypt, Iraq or Iran was asked if they wanted Britain to run their country. British archaeologists took whatever they liked and did whatever they wanted with it, there was no trade or accord with the people of those countries. The Elgin Marbles may well have been destroyed if Elgin hadn't walked off with them, but that doesn't make it right to keep them. As a Brit I take some solace from the fact that our imperial legacy is an awful lot less tainted that most, but I've no illusions about the reality of that sort of subjugation and oppression. Being one of the least worst imperial powers is hardly an accolade. I have mixed feelings about the repatriation of artefacts. There are some clear cut cases where it would be the right thing to do, like the marbles. on the other hand if we just bulk shipped everything to their countries of origin, vast quantities of the material would just disappear. We might even end up having to buy a lot of it back to get it off the black market.