世界十大遭掠奪文物
Top 10 Plundered Artifacts
世界十大遭掠奪文物
1:中國獸首 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.
當法國設計師伊夫-聖-羅蘭決定將其收藏品進行拍賣後，最近的這次對中國獸首兜售的嘗試有了與以前完全不同的進程。這兩個在第二次鴉片戰爭中被英法軍隊於圓明園搶奪而來的獸首，先是以四千萬美元成交。然後最意外的事情發生了，買家並沒有付款的意思。中國的藝術商蔡銘超重金拍得獸首，僅僅是是爲了抗議對兩個獸首的拍賣行爲。因爲在中國人的眼中，拍賣是對他們文化遺產的不公平的掠奪。
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.
目前狀況：Saint Laurent's的合夥人宣稱他將會自己保有這兩個頭像，並且他對拍賣的流產表示很震驚。儘管佳士得（拍賣公司）有可能考慮將蔡銘超送上法庭，但面對中國無數公衆對蔡的強大支持，它（佳士得，譯者注）也不得不三思而後行。
2:埃及皇后勒菲綈緹的半身像 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，在埃及的一個考古挖掘中，德國的路德維格.波哈特發現了公元前十四世紀，埃及皇后勒菲綈緹的半身像。他聲稱，根據他與埃及政府達成的一項協議，他可以擁有他一半的發現（利用此協議爲託詞），柏林也冠冕堂皇的從1923年就開始展出這一文物。可是，根據最新發現文件，博哈特在當年在半身像的歸屬問題上，故意的誤導了埃及政府。爲了能夠留住最珍貴的半身像，他讓埃及官員在灰暗的光下查看文物，還對半身像的構成撒了謊。埃及古蹟最高委員會已反覆要求德國將文物歸還，至少讓它暫時的回到埃及故土。
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.
目前狀況:德國堅持他們對勒菲綈緹像擁有絕對所有權，德國埃及博物館館長則認定即使是短暫的借出也會對文物造成損害。
3:埃爾金大理石雕 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.
埃爾金大理石雕的名字得自一名的將石雕偷運出雅典的狡猾英國貴族。托馬斯 布魯斯，他是埃爾金第七世勳爵,同時也是駐奧特曼帝國（希臘20世紀初的的宗主國）的大使，因爲托馬斯開始傾心於帕特農神廟的一幅幅的大規模古代石雕作品，在1801年，他開始將石雕在廟中取下，運回英國。埃爾金勳爵宣稱他有奧斯曼帝國蘇丹王的特許證明，只要他不破壞古廟的牆體，他可以搬走廟中的任何東西。1816年，儘管有人以埃爾金勳爵“毀了雅典”爲由極力反對，英國政府依然於購得石雕。從此之後，它就一直被存放於大英博物館。
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.
目前狀況：希臘認爲埃爾金勳爵與奧斯曼人的協議實在是可疑。他們宣稱蘇丹王是被賄賂的，而且，即使是佔領者，他也沒有任何權利去對帕特農神廟下手。然而希臘人的奔走呼號，沒有受到任何重視；英國方面堅持認爲，返還石雕不僅會對文物本身帶來不可彌補的傷害，而且會激發其他要求返還的要求，而這會榨乾全歐洲的藏品的。
4:霍屯都的維納斯 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.
霍屯都的維納斯並不是一件藝術品。相反的，它，更準確的應該是她，是一個叫做Sarah Baartman的女人。一名來自屬於今天南非地區的土著女，1810年，Baartman被帶到倫敦，隨後被帶往歐洲各國展覽，讓無聊的公衆貪婪的看她的胴體，而科學家們則去研究她爲何會如此的豐滿。這種褻玩並沒有與26歲生命一同消失，一直到1985年，baartman的性器官和大腦依然被保存在巴黎的人類博物館，他們對外聲稱是爲了科學研究。
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.
目前狀況：從上世紀80初年代開始，南非人就要求將baartman的遺體歸還南非；迫於壓力，人類博物館將遺體撤出展覽。1992年，尼爾森 曼德拉，當時的南非總統，發出了要求歸還遺體的正式要求，但還是的過了漫長的十多年後，法國才歸還了遺體。2002年 8月9日，她終於在故土南非被安葬。
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.
埃及的歷史不僅有着擁有衆多遺蹟，各種寶物，而且也有着相同衆多的被掠奪，爲此埃及不得不竭盡全力的去找回被偷走的寶物。很少的文物可以與埃及古代法老的木乃伊的價值相提並論，所以，埃及花費了數年的努力去追回存放於美國博物館的一具極有可能是拉美西斯一世的木乃伊。根據人們的猜測，可能是在19世紀10年代的時候，木乃伊被盜墓者賣給了加拿大博物館，從此離開了埃及。
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.
目前狀況：1999年，亞特蘭大的邁克爾·卡洛斯博物館得到了這一木乃伊，通過碳定年和CT掃描確定這具木乃伊產生於拉美西斯一世時期。基於這一證實，他們將木乃伊歸還給了埃及，木乃伊現在被存放於盧克索博物館。
6:歐弗洛尼奧斯陶瓶 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，博物館仍然難以避免不了得到一些來路不正的文物，比如歐弗洛尼奧斯陶瓶。這個有2500年曆史，裝飾華麗，用來混合水與酒的陶瓶，被大都會藝術博物館於1972年以100美元的價格得到。博物館爲能得到陶瓶感到非常的興奮，因爲古代陶藝畫家歐弗洛尼奧斯的作品並不多見。但是，它是買自羅伯特 赫克特，而此公現在正被意大利政府以祕密倒賣劫掠文物罪被通緝。所以正當大都會博物館館長爲陶瓶究竟來自哪裏而感到疑惑時，博物館收到了來自意大利的電話，原來陶瓶是最先在羅馬城外發現的，並且意大利方面要求將陶瓶退還。
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.
目前狀況： 經過多年的磋商，大都會博物館在2008年把陶瓶歸還給了意大利，作爲交換，博物館獲得了借走幾件相同價值文物的用來展覽的權利。
7:普里阿摩斯的寶藏 Priam's Treasure
Germany's plunder during World War II was legendary, but with Priam's Treasure they were the victims.
德國二戰期間的對文物的偷盜甚至有了些傳奇色彩，但是他們的確是失去普里阿摩斯寶藏的受害者。
Not that we should feel sorry.
當然並不是說我們應該爲此感到遺憾。
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，小亞細亞地區，德國的考古學家海因裏希 謝里曼發現了這些古器物（主要是金，銅的盾和武器），並用普里阿摩斯（特洛伊的國王）爲其命名。謝里曼將其非法走私到了德國，他堅信自己找到了《伊里亞特》中著名古城特洛伊存在的證據。但可能是因果報應吧，蘇聯戰士在二戰德國被打敗後，又將寶藏在柏林偷運走了。他們一直保守着這個祕密，直到幾十年以後的1993年，這些古器物纔出現在莫斯科的展臺上。
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.
目前情況：雖然俄羅斯在1990年簽訂了一項旨在歸還德國全部的被盜文物的協議。俄羅斯的博物館依然沒有歸還的意思，他們表示，寶藏將會用於補償二戰期間德國對前蘇聯城市的破壞。
8:光之山巨鑽 Koh-i-Noor Diamond
There are many claims to the Koh-i-Noor diamond.
很多人聲稱具有光之山巨鑽的真正所有權。
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.
這顆寶石可能在不同人，不同國家之間流落了五千年之久了，因爲有些人認爲古美索不達米亞早在公元前3200就有了關於寶石的記載。它可能曾經有793個棱角，但經過一個笨拙的寶石匠之手和幾次小的精雕後，它被切到今天的只有109個棱。莫臥爾王朝在16世紀擁有這顆鑽石，不料，有一天鑽石卻輸給了伊朗人，而伊朗人又將其輸給了阿富汗人。隨即又輾轉到錫克教徒手中，最終在它在英國停止了流浪。儘管鑽石上帶有警告——此石將會妨主，但維多利亞女王並對這詛咒予以理會。這顆寶石曾被鑲上到不同皇冠之上，直到它在的英國最近的一位王太后——伊麗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.
目前情況：很多人對寶石做出主張，甚至包括塔利班，他們甚至將寶石的來源追溯到古阿富汗到古印度。印度的錫克教徒也要求歸還寶石，因爲他們是在英國人之前最後得到寶石的人。英國方面則對這一切主張不予評論，主張既然寶石曾經留過如此多人之手，他們就擁有和以前所有人一樣多的權利。
9:傑羅尼莫（古代印第安部落阿帕奇首領）的頭骨 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.
會是世界上最具聲望和傳奇性的祕密盜墓組織嗎所爲嗎？傑羅尼莫的後代們希望能夠得到對這個流傳很久的謠言的真正答案，即是否是耶魯大學的骷髏會成員將阿帕奇勇士的遺骨挖掘出來，並帶到了他們的紐黑文校區。
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.
目前狀況：harlyn 傑羅尼莫已經對耶魯大學，骷髏會（也是宗教組織）和美國政府的一些官員提起訴訟。他要求起碼要歸還遺骨的一部分。耶魯的一名發言人對此不予評論，但是很多專家認爲盜骨者們當時很可能偷襲錯了墓地。但這沒關係，因爲盜骨者們還被傳言用有另外兩個大名鼎鼎人物的頭骨，即潘喬·比亞（墨西哥游擊隊領導人，譯者注）和馬丁·範布倫（美國總統，譯者注）。
10:伊拉克國家博物館 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.
想知道將會有哪些導火索會引起新的被盜文物爭端嗎？去伊拉克國家博物館看看就是了。薩達姆 侯賽因倒臺後，有15000多件館藏被盜，其中包括很多古代美索不達米亞的珠寶和陶製品。
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.
目前狀況：博物館於今年二月份重新開館，但是伊拉克的官員們只尋回了6000個丟失文物，目前，這批被追回文物被安置在博物館的一個特殊偏房裏。伊拉克當局一直在進行逮捕，一件件的追回着丟失的文物，他們努力的保護着伊拉克的寶貴文化寶藏，以防止文物其在自由市場上被交易。
