The great museum collections of the world (e.g., London, Berlin, Washington D.C.) would be opened to reverse anthropology - members of cultural communities formerly raided by said museums would be encouraged to mount reverse expeditions into the vast collections looking for stuff "acquired" in earlier times from said groups' ancestors. Items would be liberated in proportion to the quality of the stories the reverse anthropologists could spin about the items in questions. Points would be given for inventiveness, backed up by half-baked claims to legitimacy, rounded out by anecdotal stories about how one's great-great-great-great-great grandparents would have used such an object, skulls exempted.

(inspired by a recent anno of RayfordSteele, Feb 04 2011)
-- sqeaketh the wheel, Feb 05 2011

Some stupid people opposed to restoring, e.g. the Rosetta stone to Egypt would fail to see the mockery in this idea, and condemn it. This would be compensated by stupid people in favor of such restoration also failing to see the mockery, and praising it.

In fact, if you prepare both humerous and non-humerous versions of your proposal, and target specific versions of your pitch to specific demographics, this idea should appeal to nearly everybody. [+]
-- mouseposture, Feb 05 2011


s/lost/had taken/
-- mouseposture, Feb 05 2011


My sister-in-law's great aunt's husband was Greek, and the Greeks invented everything, so I must stake my claim on anything involving Greek fire, marble columns, or trebuchets.
-- RayfordSteele, Feb 07 2011



random, halfbakery