When I visited Rome for the first time, which again was recently, about five years ago, it's hard not to notice that there's a number of obelisks. My first thought was, I wonder why they would build Egyptian hieroglyphics and being an idiot. Of course, they didn't build them. The French took many things from Rome and the British made them give many of them back. They couldn't get all of them. As you point out about maybe about half, some of the more important ones got returns.
Should the British Museum return the Elgin Marbles, taken from the Parthenon in Athens about 200 years ago? What should be the purpose of museums, education or social justice? Listen as Tiffany Jenkins, author of Keeping Their Marbles, discusses these questions and more with EconTalk host Russ Roberts.