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This infographic seems relevant - https://i.redd.it/rgpgh82xwzv91.png https://i.redd.it/rgpgh82xwzv91.png (Number of Artifacts in British Museum Collection by

• jfengel 4y ago
  In that context, it actually seems a little odd to ask for the Rosetta Stone back in particular. There are an awful lot of artifacts whose significance to Egyptian history seems greater. The Rosetta Stone was never all that important purely as an Egyptian artifact. Its importance is to 19th century translators, who used it to decipher heiroglyphics into Greek, and then into other European languages. Of all the looted artifacts in the British Museum, that one of all of them perhaps belongs there. If it should go somewhere else, it would be to France, where the decipherment was done. Its presence in Britain is a result of the Napoleonic wars. I'm all for returning looted artifacts back to their native countries -- especially sacred objects and especially-especially human remains. I apply that to all museums. I don't know why the British Museum gets singled out when Europe is full of museums of loot, including the Louvre. But it feels just a little off to have Egypt asking for this one artifact that's famous, but not of more significance to them than the hundreds of thousands of others. Its fame is due to European work on it, not their own.