Part 1

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。

Part 2

6:欧弗洛尼奥斯陶瓶 Euphronios Krater

Even with the best of intentions, it may be difficult for museums to completely avoid the acquisition of ill-gotten artifacts. Consider the case of the Euphronios krater. The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired the 2500-year-old krater — an ornate bowl used to combine water with wine — for $1 million in 1972, thrilled to find one of the few known examples of the ancient painter Euphronios. It had been purchased, however, from Robert Hecht, now on trial in Italy on charges of conspiring to deal in looted antiquities. And while any cloud of suspicion over the krater's provenance was unbeknownst to Met curators in 1972, the museum faced calls from Italy to return the artifact, originally discovered outside Rome.

即使是十分刻意的去避免，博物馆仍然难以避免不了得到一些来路不正的文物，比如欧弗洛尼奥斯陶瓶。这个有2500年历史，装饰华丽，用来混合水与酒的陶瓶，被大都会艺术博物馆于1972年以100美元的价格得到。博物馆为能得到陶瓶感到非常的兴奋，因为古代陶艺画家欧弗洛尼奥斯的作品并不多见。但是，它是买自罗伯特 赫克特，而此公现在正被意大利政府以秘密倒卖劫掠文物罪被通缉。所以正当大都会博物馆馆长为陶瓶究竟来自哪里而感到疑惑时，博物馆收到了来自意大利的电话，原来陶瓶是最先在罗马城外发现的，并且意大利方面要求将陶瓶退还。

Current Status: After several years of negotiation, the Met returned the krater to Italy in 2008 in exchange for the rights to display several comparable artifacts on loan.

目前状况： 经过多年的磋商，大都会博物馆在2008年把陶瓶归还给了意大利，作为交换，博物馆获得了借走几件相同价值文物的用来展览的权利。

7:普里阿摩斯的宝藏 Priam's Treasure

Germany's plunder during World War II was legendary, but with Priam's Treasure they were the victims.

德国二战期间的对文物的偷盗甚至有了些传奇色彩，但是他们的确是失去普里阿摩斯宝藏的受害者。

Not that we should feel sorry.

当然并不是说我们应该为此感到遗憾。

German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the artifacts — mostly gold, copper shields and weapons — in Anatolia 1837 and named them for Priam, king of Troy. Schliemann illegally smuggled the loot to Berlin, convinced he had found evidence of the Iliad's famed ancient city. But in a bit of karmic payback, Soviet soldiers stole the treasure from Berlin during the waning days of World War II, keeping their bounty a secret for decades until the artifacts turned up on display in Moscow in 1993.

1837年，小亚细亚地区，德国的考古学家海因里希 谢里曼发现了这些古器物（主要是金，铜的盾和武器），并用普里阿摩斯（特洛伊的国王）为其命名。谢里曼将其非法走私到了德国，他坚信自己找到了《伊里亚特》中著名古城特洛伊存在的证据。但可能是因果报应吧，苏联战士在二战德国被打败后，又将宝藏在柏林偷运走了。他们一直保守着这个秘密，直到几十年以后的1993年，这些古器物才出现在莫斯科的展台上。

Current Status: Russia is technically bound by a 1990 treaty that provides for the return of all pilfered art and artifacts back to Germany. But Russian museums are now stonewalling, saying they plan to keep the treasure as reparation for Germany's destruction of Soviet cities during the war.

目前情况：虽然俄罗斯在1990年签订了一项旨在归还德国全部的被盗文物的协议。俄罗斯的博物馆依然没有归还的意思，他们表示，宝藏将会用于补偿二战期间德国对前苏联城市的破坏。

8:光之山巨钻 Koh-i-Noor Diamond

There are many claims to the Koh-i-Noor diamond.

很多人声称具有光之山巨钻的真正所有权。

The jewel may have passed through hands and nations for as many as 5000 years — some think ancient Mesopotamian texts make reference to the Koh-i-Noor as early as 3200 B.C. It may have once been a monstrous 793 carets, before a jeweler's maladroitness and a few subsequent refinements chopped it to the mere 109-caret chunk it is today. The Moguls possessed it in the 16th Century, only to lose it to the Iranians, who then lost it to the Afghans. It later went to the Sikhs and ended up with the British. And while the stone carried with it a warning that it would bring harm to its owner, Queen Victoria paid it no heed. It circulated through the British crown jewels until finding a home in the coronation crown of Elizabeth, Britain's most recent Queen Mother.

这颗宝石可能在不同人，不同国家之间流落了五千年之久了，因为有些人认为古美索不达米亚早在公元前3200就有了关于宝石的记载。它可能曾经有793个棱角，但经过一个笨拙的宝石匠之手和几次小的精雕后，它被切到今天的只有109个棱。莫卧尔王朝在16世纪拥有这颗钻石，不料，有一天钻石却输给了伊朗人，而伊朗人又将其输给了阿富汗人。随即又辗转到锡克教徒手中，最终在它在英国停止了流浪。尽管钻石上带有警告——此石将会妨主，但维多利亚女王并对这诅咒予以理会。这颗宝石曾被镶上到不同皇冠之上，直到它在的英国最近的一位王太后——伊丽莎白的加冕皇冠上永久的安家。

Current Status: Many lay claim to the Koh-i-Noor, including the Taliban, who trace its origin in India through Afghanistan in ancient days. Indian Sikhs have asked for the diamond back too, as they were the most recent holders before the British. For their part, the British are deaf to these claims, arguing since the diamond has passed through so many hands for so long, they have just as much right to the stone as anyone.

目前情况：很多人对宝石做出主张，甚至包括塔利班，他们甚至将宝石的来源追溯到古阿富汗到古印度。印度的锡克教徒也要求归还宝石，因为他们是在英国人之前最后得到宝石的人。英国方面则对这一切主张不予评论，主张既然宝石曾经留过如此多人之手，他们就拥有和以前所有人一样多的权利。

9:杰罗尼莫（古代印第安部落阿帕奇首领）的头骨 Geronimo's Skull

Are the members of one of the world's most prestigious and legendary secret societies grave robbers? Descendants of Geronimo want answers to the persistent rumors that members of Yale's Skull and Bones Society unearthed the remains of the Apache warrior to bring back to their New Haven campus.

会是世界上最具声望和传奇性的秘密盗墓组织吗所为吗？杰罗尼莫的后代们希望能够得到对这个流传很久的谣言的真正答案，即是否是耶鲁大学的骷髅会成员将阿帕奇勇士的遗骨挖掘出来，并带到了他们的纽黑文校区。

Current Status: Descendant Harlyn Geronimo filed a lawsuit in February against Yale, the Order of Skull and Bones and members of the U.S. government, calling for the return of any of Geronimo's remains. A Yale spokesman had no comment, but some experts believe Bonesman raided the wrong grave anyway. No matter — the Bonesmen are also rumored to possess two more famed skulls, those of Pancho Villa and President Martin Van Buren.

目前状况：harlyn 杰罗尼莫已经对耶鲁大学，骷髅会（也是宗教组织）和美国政府的一些官员提起诉讼。他要求起码要归还遗骨的一部分。耶鲁的一名发言人对此不予评论，但是很多专家认为盗骨者们当时很可能偷袭错了墓地。但这没关系，因为盗骨者们还被传言用有另外两个大名鼎鼎人物的头骨，即潘乔·比亚（墨西哥游击队领导人，译者注）和马丁·范布伦（美国总统，译者注）。

10:伊拉克国家博物馆 Iraqi National Museum

In search of a future flash point for conflicts over plundered artifacts? Search no further than Iraq's National Museum. In the days after the fall of Saddam Hussein, more than 15,000 artifacts were taken from the museum's collection, including many ancient examples of Mesopotamian jewelry and ceramics.

想知道将会有哪些导火索会引起新的被盗文物争端吗？去伊拉克国家博物馆看看就是了。萨达姆 侯赛因倒台后，有15000多件馆藏被盗，其中包括很多古代美索不达米亚的珠宝和陶制品。

Current Status: The museum reopened in late February, but Iraqi officials were only able to secure just 6,000 of the missing items, which are now housed in their own special wing in the museum. Arrests — and recoveries — continue as authorities try to prevent Iraq's prized cultural treasures from being traded on the open market.

目前状况：博物馆于今年二月份重新开馆，但是伊拉克的官员们只寻回了6000个丢失文物，目前，这批被追回文物被安置在博物馆的一个特殊偏房里。伊拉克当局一直在进行逮捕，一件件的追回着丢失的文物，他们努力的保护着伊拉克的宝贵文化宝藏，以防止文物其在自由市场上被交易。