Think about the current placement of the Rosetta Stone. It was discovered in Egypt by Napoleon's army in 1799. Then the French army capitulated to the British, with the stipulation that all the specimens uncovered by the savants who accompanied Napoleon had to be turned over. The stone was eventually transferred to England, and has been prominent within the British Museum ever since. While the French and English scuffled and argued over its ownership, no one was asking the Egyptians what they thought. Perhaps the Egyptians didn't really care much; it took the scholarship of the French to start the still unending interest in Egyptology. But the Egyptians care now, or at least some of them do. Why should the Rosetta Stone be so far away from its home and from its context? Why should it not be returned, since the nation of its origin was never consulted about "donating" it? The Rosetta Stone is just one artifact mentioned in _Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World_ (Times Books) by Sharon Waxman. The author is a journalist with expertise in Middle East studies, and places the acquisition of such treasures within the history of the nationalism and colonial reach of the expanding powers starting at the end of the eighteenth century and continuing to the present. The present, however, is especially complicated. Current nations presiding over their ancient troves would like to recover what they have lost, and some of them are making it happen, using "lawsuits and criminal prosecution, public embarrassment, and bare-knuckled threats." Since this is a story of world history and culture, it touches us all, and Waxman has provided an exciting account that pays close attention to all sides of the issues as the controversy enters a new phase.

Regarding finds of previous centuries, there are few disputes in which the feelings of both sides have such strong and comprehensible arguments to support them. Those who feel that treasures, like the Rosetta Stone, ought to stay just where they now maintain that these are not artifacts that belong to a region, but are part of the history of all humankind. The great museums have plenty of visitors, so that the objects get appreciated and the lands from which they were taken reap increased interest and tourist visits. The museums have staff and security to take care of the finds. The opposing view is that objects of ancient history are best appreciated in the region of their own culture; a concentration of such objects found in one region could easily be displayed in good museums not far from where the treasure was found. The context with the other objects could be unbroken. Other cultures ripping out the treasures and taking them away steal the soul and history of a nation, a link between present and past vital for national identity. A good deal of Waxman's book has to do with the Elgin Marbles, the pieces of the Acropolis Lord Elgin took two centuries ago and which have pride of place in the British Museum. This is the oldest and loudest of the repatriation battles. Waxman shows that in this supreme argument about repatriation, Greece may trump any argument from the British Museum, but the museum is going to fight for a reason that surpasses the Elgin controversy: if the museum gives the marbles back, then there will be an inevitable deluge of petitions to return all that other looted stuff, not only to Greece, and not only from the British Museum, but worldwide.

There is plenty of controversy here to go around, and few easy answers. There is, at least, some new hesitation from museums to take on acquisitions that might have wrongfully come to them, although that hesitation has been obtained by the threat of legal procedure and financial loss. The museum world may not be close to solving the problem of the acquisitions from the old colonial days, but at least the pros and cons are being considered, rather than a mechanical acceptance of the status quo. Waxman takes us on a tour of sleek museums and dank tombs, and introduces us to a cast of scholars, gadflies, and rogues. Writing about such a controversial topic, it is not surprising that she cannot offer pat answers to the repatriation question. She does, however, ask the right questions. Anyone who has an interest in museums or ancient art will benefit from the light she has brought to a complex controversy.

Sharon Waxman has written a remarkable book. With skill and insight, she takes the reader inside the world's great museums and through the sordid antiquities market. She poses difficult questions and uncovers uncomfortable truths, but without rancor and with a reporter's attention to nuance. "Loot" also never lags as it hopscotches from Europe to the Middle East to the United States. I couldn't put it down--and I certainly will never look at the Louvre or the Met the same way again.

Whose art is it, anyway?

That is the question at the heart of this carefully-crafted and insightful analysis of the ongoing battle of the ownership of antiquities from Greek, Egyptian and other ancient societies. Sharon Waxman has done an admirable job of covering the key personalities and issues, never allowing herself to be distracted and accomplishing the impossible -- taking a passionate view of the importance of these objects to art and history without losing sight that their is no simple answer to that fundamental question of their ownership.

Waxman profiles both sides of the debate, the activists and government officials in countries such as Egypt, Turkey and Italy who are lobbying for the return of everything from the Elgin Marbles (hacked off the Acropolis some two centuries ago) to unique Etruscan artifacts likely looted and smuggled overseas within the last decade. There are no heroes in this saga. Museum directors continue to duck the question of how some of the objects on display ended up in their galleries and argue that their collections form part of the broader "human heritage" that only institutions in giant Western cities from New York to Berlin can adequately care for and display. On the other side are those pressing for the return of these objects so that they can be displayed as part of the heritage of the country where they were created and, millennia later, rediscovered.

But... What happens when objects are repatriated? Waxman takes the reader to the site of nearly-empty museums in Luxor, Egypt and Antalya, Turkey, filled with precious objects but devoid of local visitors. (Even the son of Zahi Hawass, Egypt's antiquities honcho and chief agitator for the return of the Rosetta Stone, among other items, is more interested in Islam and the country's more immediate and, to many, relevant history than he is in the idolatrous Pharoahs and the temples to Horus or Hathor that they left behind them.) She also tells of one Turkish archaeologist who is facing trial for the theft of priceless gold objects from the "Lydian Hoard", finally returned by New York's Met to Turkey amidst great fanfare about a decade ago. Is returning the objects to countries where they can't be protected, cared for or displayed the right strategy, especially if those objects really have no connection to the society inhabiting the country today? (Today's Turks, for instance, aren't descended from the Greek, Phrygian, Lydian, Lycian or other societies that once inhabited their nation; they arrived from further east centuries later.) But, just as the reader becomes sympathetic to the arguments of museum curators, Waxman switches gears to show the ruthlessness with which the latter built their collections and the intellectual arrogance of their arguments. Nor, as she shows in connection with the Elgin Marbles, have they alwasy cared for their objects in their care.

Ultimately, there are no easy answers and Waxman wisely avoids the trap of joining one camp or the other. In the final few pages, she advocates a new paradigm that may prove utopian but at least offers those of us who may be tempted to join the public debate a more reasonable middle way.

The only flaw in this ambitious but thorough and lively overview of the ongoing battle is Waxman's failure to address, except in passing, the role of private collectors in the antiquities trade. Public collections have gradually adopted a much more restrictive approach to purchasing antiquities that don't have a clear provenance or history, and are at least engaging in this debate with the countries of origin. But private collectors have tended to be less scrupulous and, by their nature, their activities are less visible. Waxman notes that the high prices these collectors are still willing to pay for black market objects are likely to encourage archaelogical looting; it would have been valuable and interesting to have explored this with some of these collectors or their art advisors.

Anyone interested in learning more about this looting should turn to the work co-written by Peter Watson & Cecilia TodeschiniThe Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities-- From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums If you're more interested in the debate over how the past is represented and who owns it, The Future of the Past by Alexander Stille is excellent and beautifully written.