David cameron admits that the british museum are full of stolen artifacts.

Britain refused a 1976 request to cede the diamond, citing the terms of the Anglo-Sikh peace treaty. “I could not advise her majesty the Queen that it should be surrendered,” said Jim Callaghan, the prime minister at the time.

David Cameron has also said he would oppose returning the diamond. “If you say yes to one you suddenly find the British Museum would be empty,” the prime minister told India’s NDTV in 2010.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/18/koh-i-noor-diamond-given-britain-indian-government-crown-queen-mother

Cant put this in news section cause its not news, but the link article was published on april 18 2016

Now completely ignoring whether the diamond was legitimately given or stolen , which is not the point of this thread, the bolded part of his quote..................... Did he just admit that the british empire steal from other people??? :rofl:

(edited 8 years ago)

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Reply 1

DiddyDec01

It isn't exactly a secret.

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Everybody knows that

We steal what we want
We steal what we waaaaant
We're the British Empire
We steal what we want

Reply 4

TheThiefOfBagdad

Original post by HucktheForde

Did he just admit that the british empire stole from other people?

No. He just (SIX years ago) admitted that if you send one piece back to its country of origin then the British museum would be empty.

Reply 5

h333

I have heard of this too lol. Maybe if it is stolen they should give it back if they want it.

Reply 6

Rii.M

The Koh-i-noor diamond was GIVEN to Britain, it wasn't stolen, I don't see why we should give it back.

Reply 7

DrSocSciences

'Keeping their marbles: How the treasures of the past ended up in museums, and why they should stay there' (2016) by Tiffany Jenkins covers this in depth.

Reply 8

AperfectBalance

It is a symbol of our empire and what we once were, we should not give anything back to anyone.

Reply 9

username1221160

The British Museum should contain British artefacts only. Are we so culturally poor that we need to beg, borrow and steal from other cultures? What do foreign diamonds or marbles have that Melton Mowbray pork pies don't (besides a longer shelf life)?

Reply 10

DiddyDec01

Original post by Quantex

No, we are multicultural.

Reply 11

DanteTheDoorKnob

Most of the artifacts belong to people who have been dead for a very long time, or sold them due to fear of being destroyed / to help with domestic confict. It's not a secret but neither should we return them, who are we returning them to? Did the Greek government even exist at the time Ottomans sold us artifacts?

Reply 12

Youngmetro

It's because there is no such thing as british culture so stolen artifacts are required to fill that void.

To the people who say 'we shouldnt give it back, its a reminder of british empire'

That same logic can be applied with a burglar 'I stole your TV. im not going to give it back because it is a reminder of the burglary'

smh

Reply 13

username1148663

I'd say when you own a country you can't steal from it as by definition you own it.

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Reply 14

TimmonaPortella

Original post by Youngmetro

We have a great culture, part of which is generously looking after precious artefacts which would otherwise have been destroyed by whichever philistines were occupying their place of origin and displaying them for all the world to see.

Original post by DanteTheDoorKnob

lol quite.

The Elgin Marbles dispute is a particularly silly example.

The idea that modern Greeks have anything at all to do with ancient Athenian civilisation is farcical.

'I demand that this former part of this ancient civilisation's building which happens to be vaguely near where I was born be returned to me!'

Erm, no, sorry. I mean, we might consider it once you sort out your tax affairs and pay us back all that money you owe us, but even then I doubt it.