Value, Obligation and Cultural Heritage

There are an increasing number of examples of cooperation between museums and claimants and between collecting and source nations. This cooperation is founded at least partially on a mutual understanding of the significance of certain objects and a sense of obligation to the integrity of the objects themselves. This paper is about that shared understanding and the universal element in our various attitudes towards cultural heritage. By emphasizing our shared values, this paper hopes to provide a way to both explain and critique, in essence to reason through, our attempts to regulate the movement and treatment of cultural heritage.