Looted Antiquities Shape Modern Museums

Amateur nineteenth‑century excavations—often illegal, destructive, and driven by treasure hunting—seeded many museum collections and created long‑running provenance problems that complicate modern repatriation, legal claims, and national narratives. The Schliemann story is a canonical example: enthusiasm for 'finding Troy' produced headline treasures but also damaged archaeology and left contested objects in European collections. — If unpacked, these historical episodes demand concrete policy responses (provenance audits, repatriation frameworks, museum disclosure rules) because they affect diplomacy, cultural politics, and public trust in institutions.