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Top 10 Plundered Artifacts
世界十大遭掠夺文物
1:中国兽首 Chinese Bronzes
The recent attempt to sell a pair of brass Chinese animal heads took an inventive turn after they were put up for auction as part of the sale of French designer Yves Saint Laurent's art collection. A $40 million bid was received for the two heads (a rabbit and a rat), which French and British troops removed from a clock at China's Old Summer Palace during the second Opium War in 1860. One hitch — the buyer had no intention of paying. Chinese art dealer Cai Mingchao submitted the massive bid to protest the sale of the heads, which many Chinese see as unfairly torn from their cultural patrimony.
当法国设计师伊夫-圣-罗兰决定将其收藏品进行拍卖后，最近的这次对中国兽首兜售的尝试有了与以前完全不同的进程。这两个在第二次鸦片战争中被英法军队于圆明园抢夺而来的兽首，先是以四千万美元成交。然后最意外的事情发生了，买家并没有付款的意思。中国的艺术商蔡铭超重金拍得兽首，仅仅是是为了抗议对两个兽首的拍卖行为。因为在中国人的眼中，拍卖是对他们文化遗产的不公平的掠夺。
Current Status: Saint Laurent's partner said he plans to keep the heads and is "thrilled" the sale failed. And while Christie's may consider charges against Cai, they will likely relent after an outpouring of support from the Chinese public for his actions.
目前状况：Saint Laurent's的合伙人宣称他将会自己保有这两个头像，并且他对拍卖的流产表示很震惊。尽管佳士得（拍卖公司）有可能考虑将蔡铭超送上法庭，但面对中国无数公众对蔡的强大支持，它（佳士得，译者注）也不得不三思而后行。
2:埃及皇后勒菲绨缇的半身像 Nefertiti's Bust
During a 1912 Egyptian excavation, German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt discovered the bust of Nefertiti, a 14th Century BC Egyptian queen. He claimed to have an agreement with the Egyptian government that included rights to half his finds and — using this as justification — Berlin has proudly displayed the item since 1923. But a new document suggests Borchardt intentionally misled Egyptian authorities about Nefertiti, showing the bust in a poor light and lying about its composition in order to keep his most-prized find. The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities has repeatedly asked Germany to give the bust back — or at the very least let it return home on a temporary basis.
1912年，在埃及的一个考古挖掘中，德国的路德维格.波哈特发现了公元前十四世纪，埃及皇后勒菲绨缇的半身像。他声称，根据他与埃及政府达成的一项协议，他可以拥有他一半的发现（利用此协议为托词），柏林也冠冕堂皇的从1923年就开始展出这一文物。可是，根据最新发现文件，博哈特在当年在半身像的归属问题上，故意的误导了埃及政府。为了能够留住最珍贵的半身像，他让埃及官员在灰暗的光下查看文物，还对半身像的构成撒了谎。埃及古迹最高委员会已反复要求德国将文物归还，至少让它暂时的回到埃及故土。
Current Status: Germany insists their ownership of Nefertiti is without doubt, and Berlin's Egyptian Museum curators maintain that even a brief loan may damage the bust.
目前状况:德国坚持他们对勒菲绨缇像拥有绝对所有权，德国埃及博物馆馆长则认定即使是短暂的借出也会对文物造成损害。
3:埃尔金大理石雕 The Elgin Marbles
The Elgin Marbles receive their name from the British lord who craftily spirited them away from Greece. Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin and ambassador to the Ottoman Empire — occupiers of Greece in the early 20th century — grew to admire the Parthenon's extensive collection of ancient marble sculptures and began extracting and expatriating them to Britain in 1901. Lord Elgin claimed his imprimatur from an Ottoman sultan, who said he could remove anything from the Parthenon that did not interfere with the ancient citadel's walls. Despite objections that Lord Elgin had "ruined Athens" by the time his work was done in 1905, the British Government purchased the marbles from him in 1816. They've been housed at the British Museum ever since.
埃尔金大理石雕的名字得自一名的将石雕偷运出雅典的狡猾英国贵族。托马斯 布鲁斯，他是埃尔金第七世勋爵,同时也是驻奥特曼帝国（希腊20世纪初的的宗主国）的大使，因为托马斯开始倾心于帕特农神庙的一幅幅的大规模古代石雕作品，在1801年，他开始将石雕在庙中取下，运回英国。埃尔金勋爵宣称他有奥斯曼帝国苏丹王的特许证明，只要他不破坏古庙的墙体，他可以搬走庙中的任何东西。1816年，尽管有人以埃尔金勋爵“毁了雅典”为由极力反对，英国政府依然于购得石雕。从此之后，它就一直被存放于大英博物馆。
Current Status: Greece considers Lord Elgin's agreement with the Ottomans dubious at best. They claim the Sultan was bribed and that, as an occupier, he really had no authority over the Parthenon to begin with. Calls to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece have fallen on deaf ears; the British argue that giving the marbles back would do everything from irreparably destroying them to creating more demand for the return of ancient art, draining the collections of European museums.
目前状况：希腊认为埃尔金勋爵与奥斯曼人的协议实在是可疑。他们宣称苏丹王是被贿赂的，而且，即使是占领者，他也没有任何权利去对帕特农神庙下手。然而希腊人的奔走呼号，没有受到任何重视；英国方面坚持认为，返还石雕不仅会对文物本身带来不可弥补的伤害，而且会激发其他要求返还的要求，而这会榨干全欧洲的藏品的。
4:霍屯都的维纳斯 The Hottentot Venus
The Hottentot Venus was not a piece of art at all. Instead, it — rather, she — was a person named Sarah Baartman. An indigenous woman from an area now located in South Africa, Baartman was taken to London in 1810 and paraded through Europe, on display for the public to gawk at her full figure and for scientists to explore the reasons for her voluptuous appearance. The indignities continued past her death at the age of 26 — until 1985, Baartman's sex organs and brain were housed in Paris' Musee de l'Homme, ostensibly for scientific study.
霍屯都的维纳斯并不是一件艺术品。相反的，它，更准确的应该是她，是一个叫做Sarah Baartman的女人。一名来自属于今天南非地区的土著女，1810年，Baartman被带到伦敦，随后被带往欧洲各国展览，让无聊的公众贪婪的看她的胴体，而科学家们则去研究她为何会如此的丰满。这种亵玩并没有与26岁生命一同消失，一直到1985年，baartman的性器官和大脑依然被保存在巴黎的人类博物馆，他们对外声称是为了科学研究。
Current Status: Calls by South Africans for the return of Baartman's remains began in the early 1980s; bowing to pressure, the Musee de l'Homme took the body off display. In 1992, Nelson Mandela, then the president of South Africa, issued a formal request for the Baartman's return, but it took a decade more of hand wringing for the French to repatriate her remains. She was buried in South Africa on August 9, 2002.
目前状况：从上世纪80初年代开始，南非人就要求将baartman的遗体归还南非；迫于压力，人类博物馆将遗体撤出展览。1992年，尼尔森 曼德拉，当时的南非总统，发出了要求归还遗体的正式要求，但还是的过了漫长的十多年后，法国才归还了遗体。2002年 8月9日，她终于在故土南非被安葬。
5:拉美西斯木乃伊 Ramses Mummy
With a history equally rich in antiquities and the looting of said antiquities, Egypt is exhaustive in its attempts to recover stolen artifacts. Few items are more prized than the mummified remains of its ancient pharaohs, and Egypt has tried for years to recoup what is likely the 3000-year-old body of Pharaoh Ramses I from U.S. museums. It is suspected that grave robbers sold the body to a Canadian museum sometime in the 1860s.
埃及的历史不仅有着拥有众多遗迹，各种宝物，而且也有着相同众多的被掠夺，为此埃及不得不竭尽全力的去找回被偷走的宝物。很少的文物可以与埃及古代法老的木乃伊的价值相提并论，所以，埃及花费了数年的努力去追回存放于美国博物馆的一具极有可能是拉美西斯一世的木乃伊。根据人们的猜测，可能是在19世纪10年代的时候，木乃伊被盗墓者卖给了加拿大博物馆，从此离开了埃及。
Current Status: In 1999, Atlanta's Michael Carlos Museum received the mummy and used carbon dating and CT scans to place the mummy to the era of Ramses I. Upon confirmation, they offered to return the body to Egypt, where it is now housed at the Luxor Museum.
目前状况：1999年，亚特兰大的迈克尔·卡洛斯博物馆得到了这一木乃伊，通过碳定年和CT扫描确定这具木乃伊产生于拉美西斯一世时期。基于这一证实，他们将木乃伊归还给了埃及，木乃伊现在被存放于卢克索博物馆。
