Priam's Gold

Should the gold be returned? If so to whom?

Since the 1800’s, there has been heavy tension and debate surrounding the excavated materials of Troy. The biggest debate over the gold seems to be between Russia and Germany.
Turkey wants their heritage back, while Germany wants what is rightfully theirs, and Russia, the current owners, will not surrender the ancient king’s treasures out of spite towards the Germans, who feel that the treasures are appropriate compensation for all of the trouble Germany has caused Russia. Nazi soldiers looted untold troves of paintings and artifacts from St. Petersburg palaces and museums after their 1941 invasion. Among the more infamous losses were 12 priceless panels from the Amber Room of Catherine’s Palace in the village of Pushkin–a wartime disappearance that remains unsolved. ¹

To this day, looted German art — known as “trophy art” in Moscow — lies in the vaults of Russian museums. The different terms that the two countries use for the art treasures are revealing. Berlin views the works of art carried off by the Red Army after the end of World War II, as stolen, while Moscow sees them as moral compensation for the atrocities that Germans committed during the war.

In 1995 there was a resurgence in return of looted items from WWII but still today the idea of keeping of trophy art popular in Russia. The idea is to let the matter lie for another generation or two, in order to let the wounds heal more; the memory is to fresh to try and deal with the return of items.²

This controversy is notable and worth discussing, because before Schliemann relinquished his findings to Germany, he had previously promised them to multiple other countries- Greece, the United States, France, England and Russia (who ended up with them anyway). Schliemann caused a complex problem of ownership rights, and this is an issue that has been unresolved since Schliemann’s death in 1890. There is no clear answer as to where Priam’s treasures should be or as to where they belong. This issue will only be resolved with time and patience.

 

 

 

 

 

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