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Who Owns the Art? In the Valley of the Kings the colorful red, white, and yellow murals in the tomb of Seti I have been rubbed away by the more than 7,000 visitors a day during the tourist season. Increased moisture has caused the growth of microorganisms on the tomb walls which threaten to destroy the murals. In the 1980's three meters of ceiling collapsed causing the tomb to be closed indefinitely. In 1986 the Getty Institute of California spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and took five years restoring 150 square meters of murals in Queen Nefertari's tomb. The increased humidity on the tomb walls, an unforeseen result of the building of the Aswan dam, has created salt crystals which as they grow behind the murals causes them to crack and fall on the tomb floor. Egypt
lacks both the money and the technology for preserving its treasures.
Who do you believe owns the heritage and the ideas of Egypt? Do they belong
to the global community? Who is responsible for preserving the antiquities
of a culture? Should the international community become involved? If so,
to what extent? Financial? Technological? Would this involvement be a
new form of colonialism? Who decides what
is worth saving? Given the limitations of time and money what criteria
should be used to determine the choices between maintaining antiquities
and other more immediate social concerns i.e. poor, indigent? |