Repatriation and the Legacy of Colonialism in the Middle East

In 2002, the leading Arab media channel, Aljazeera, aired an episode of the program Top Secret presented by the well-known investigative reporter and TV host, Yosri Fouda. The episode was titled “Antiquities thieves: the Arab treasures in Western museums.” The episode marks a new phase of Arab media covering issues of heritage protection and repatriation of artifacts. The episode had four discussion points. The fourth point focused on the issue they termed “the plunder of our history,” a phrase often used in public Arab discourse to refer to the removal of cultural artifacts to the West.