End of Museums?

Nowadays, museums are receiving a lot of requests asking them to return some of their artifacts to their origins. One of the most recent examples of this is the demand of Turkey. Turkey wants the statues that were a part of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus back from British Museum. It was announced in the beginning of December that Turkish government is going before the European Court of Human Rights with 30 lawyers in order to gain the artifacts back. Turkish lawyers state that they do not believe that these statues were legally taken from Turkey. They state that the mausoleum was heavily damaged because of earthquakes in 19th century and during this time these statues were taken by the crusaders. However, the British Museum spokes person answered these claims by saying everything was done on legal terms. Another example is the Greece asking British Museum if they could get back the Parthenon marbles.
These incidents raise the question whether the museums should fulfill the request of the countries. The Guardian, a British newspaper, defines as “a potential disaster for the world’s museum”. In one side of the coin, not complying the requests of the countries seems hostile, which can result in a small tension, but on the other side, obeying this demand may be the end of the museum as well. Many other countries could start petition to get back their own artifacts as well. This dilemma is a highly debated conflict nowadays.