European colonization of Africa and Asia peaked on the eve of World War I and subsequently began to decline. This decline accelerated rapidly after the end of World War II, and today, most people in the world live free from colonial rule.
However, the Western world has been slower to accept fully the cultural autonomy of many former colonies in Africa and Asia. Consider the fact that Egypt has attempted (unsuccessfully) to recover a limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti from a German museum since 1925 (see http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-24/egypt-demands-return-of-3-400-year-old-queen-nefertiti-bust-from-germany.html). In effect, such attempts to recover antiquities are manifestations of a cutlure's desire to preserve its own heritage.
However, in some cases, a former colony's right to cultural property might be contested with some legitimacy: for instance, consider the fact that the Rosetta stone has been a popular fixture of the British Museum for over two centuries. Moreover, the very concept of cultural property is complicated by the fact that the earth's entire population is being viewed increasingly as one community (consider the implications of UNESCO's "World Heritage Site" designation).
Thus, while it remains a fact that many foreign artifacts found in Western museums were acquired by unsavory techniques, the issue of the return of cultural property is not easily solved.
In any case, the idea that a museum's purpose is to exhibit foreign curiosities for entertainment must be discarded. As shown by the very existence of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (mentioned in the article above), many cultures place great importance on their products of their heritage. The least that Western museums can do is to respect that heritage.
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