Most of the artifacts in British museums are stolen. Sometimes those artifacts are not just historical, they have real world use today, like idols or religious

Most of the artifacts in British museums are stolen. Sometimes those artifacts are not just historical, they have real world use today, like idols or religious objects used in active worship . They still don’t return it British policies and views around this issue has always been terrible . John Oliver had a segment summarizing the situation https://youtu.be/eJPLiT1kCSM?si=BqGytuakYPC0O4Xw https://youtu.be/eJPLiT1kCSM?si=BqGytuakYPC0O4Xw many countries (especially China) have nationalization laws which makes the state the owner of any cultural artifact so claim of legal ownership by a British institution sketchy at best. it would be quite difficult or even impossible to be able prove provenance. Highly doubt any religious or state institution which was the custodian of the piece pre British times , legally sold with documentation to anyone that can be proved today, so ownership would default to the state . these are national laws not in UNESCO treaties so cannot be enforced outside national borders .