Colonialism and whether Royal jewels should be returned

[AllTheseYears]

I was reading about the issue of whether Royal jewels taken from other countries during colonialism should be returned. There were arguments for and against so I just wondered what people here thought. Do you think Charles and William will be keen to return them to make amends? It seems the right thing to do in my opinion and would help modernise the monarchy.

They stated their opinion.

It would be ok if they didn’t though. Some people post to get other peoples opinions on a topic because they haven’t yet made their mind up. Why are there so many posters trying to be thread police atm? It’s like they don’t want the RF or government questioned.

Their apologies need to be for a much wider reaching audience that just British people. They need to extend to the world. People in other counties suffered hugely.

And give the ‘shiny rocks’ back.

I’ve read the replies and will continue to read more regarding this issue.

I’d say a strong no. These jewels have changed hands many times down the centuries: there are ongoing disputes as to who are the rightful owners. Just leave well alone.

Seems odd for the UK to wring its hands and worry about a pointless shiny bauble when the US is teaching us that in the new world order we live in, might is right.

If you want Venezuela’s oil resources, go and take them and dare anyone to stop you. If you want Greenland, take it.

It’s all about empire building again these days, fill your coffers with as much as you can steal - woohoo!

Depressing but true.

This is so true, if these stones didn't belong to our unworthy royal family they'd belong to some equally grasping maharaja or vile kleptocrat anyway, it's hard to see how just any transfer of ownership would really be.

All this self flagellation does seem extra pointless at the moment.

It's not like they are going to cut them up and give them to the poor is it?

I honestly, I think it should be returned. It wasn't taken as a gift, not even in a normal way. They should return things to Greece also. I remember Anal Clooney being in such case but apparently it lead to nothing?

You heard those rumours about George too!

The British museum holds loads of treasures from Afghanistan. Including religious artifacts. Should we hand them over to the Taliban to destroy? What about Persian treasures? Should they be handed to the Arab colonialists of Iran?

Of course many of these countries gain their treasures from their own colonial activities. There seems this weird myth that only the Uk were colonialists and built empires and traded slaves when of course there have been many many countries who built empires and traded slaves for millennia (including slaves captured from Britain), many of which were far far more brutal than anything the UK did. You just need to look at the Islamic colonisation of recent times to see the genocide and brutality there.

@RedTagAlan
With regards to the Elgin Marbles, some say they were looted, some say they were legally acquired by Elgin and subsequently purchased by the British Government.

However regardless of that, I think that with current technology they could be '3D scanned' and full size replicas made and the originals given back to Greece - as a 'nice thing to do'.

As an aside I think a similar thing should be done with the Bayeux Tapestry rather than risking damaging when moving it. I know rhe Government have said they will insure it for £800 million, but they don't have any money - it's the tax payers money.

Actually, based on the theory that objects should be returned, the 'Bayeux' tapestry should be returned to the UK. It only ended up in Normandy because they were the colonial power that had invaded England. The consensus is that it was made in England.

I'm not fussed about the jewels but I'm very happy that the UK (and other places) are returning ancestral remains from the places they took them from.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cde2dd01n8wo

I bet Billy Eilish wished she had kept quiet at the Grammy's. She is now having to consider selling her million dollar mansion back to the Tongva tribe as it is part of their ancestral land....sell it back! It was stolen, give it back. I love it when virtue signalling hits them on the arse.

This is something I care very little about tbh