Thoughts on the British Museum

I can describe the British Museum in one word: Overwhelming!  There is so much to see there that I could spend a whole year in that place and not have seen all there is to see.  Luckily, like most museums here in London, it is free to get into the British Museum, so I can visit it as many times as I would like during my stay.  It is also conveniently located just a block away from my flat, which is amazing!  The building takes up multiple city blocks and is even more massive on the inside than it looks from the outside.  It holds approximately 8 million artifacts and has over five million visitors per year.  

They are dedicated to human history and culture and have artifacts from all the continents.  I found it very interesting that a museum in London held artifacts that seem so much more important to other parts of the world.  There are actually many items within the collection of the British Museum that are controversially disputed by the home nation of the artifacts.  A great example of this are the Elgin Marbles, which are hand carved Greek marble sculptures that once stood on the Parthenon and other buildings in Athens.  These were removed from Greece between 1801 and 1812 and brought to England by Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin.  There was much controversy at the time about this and many criticized Bruce as a looter.  However, Parliament exonerated Bruce of any wrongdoing and eventually the British government purchased the sculptures from him.  There is still much debate about whether the marbles should be returned to Greece or remain in the museum.  Some countries with items in dispute have received monetary compensation from the museum.  Some items that have been or are currently being disputed include: 

• Benin Bronzes - claimed by Nigeria, 30 pieces sold already by The British Museum privately in the 1960s
• Ethiopian Tabots - claimed by Ethiopia
• 4 stolen drawings (Nazi plunder) - Compensation paid to Uri Peled in the amount of £175,000 by the British Museum
• Achaemenid empire gold and silver artefacts from the Oxus Treasure - claimed by Tajikistan
• Aboriginal human remains - returned to Tasmania by the British Museum
• Rosetta Stone - claimed by Egypt
• Some 24,000+ scrolls, manuscripts, paintings, scriptures, and relics from the Mogao Caves, including the Diamond Sutra - claimed by the People's Republic of China

When the British Empire was at it's peak there was a saying that "the sun never sets on the British Empire." You can see the relics of this vast empire throughout the British Museum.  My question is, should these items really be held in this monument to imperialism or returned to their rightful homes and cultures?