So what do other museums think of the declaration this week by some of the world’s major museums that they shouldn’t return ancient artifacts to their countries of origin? “The British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles was dismissive of the declaration by the museums, which included the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Hermitage in St Petersburg, and the Berlin Museum. ‘Such unilateral, absolute ‘declarations’ are not sustainable in the modern world,’ it insisted. ‘Declarations of this kind should be the outcome of discussion and consultation beyond the small circle of self-styled ‘universal’ museums’.”