英語新聞｜大英博物館“失竊”丑聞?wù)痼@世界，館內(nèi)文物失竊早有先例！

 Since it was established by the British Parliament in 1753 to house the collection of 71,000 artifacts bequeathed to the nation by physician Hans Sloane, London's British Museum has welcomed millions of visitors, including some of the most famous names in history, through its doors to marvel at its wonders.

自1753年英國議會為收藏醫(yī)生漢斯-斯隆遺贈給國家的71,000件文物而建立以來，倫敦大英博物館已接待了數(shù)百萬參觀者，其中包括一些歷史上最著名的人物，他們都曾走進博物館的大門，驚嘆于博物館的奇跡。

In 1765, the 9-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote a piece of music dedicated to the museum on Great Russell Street after a visit. Years later, Karl Marx, Bram Stoker and Arthur Conan Doyle became regular users of its famous reading room.

1765年，9歲的沃爾夫?qū)ぐ數(shù)纤埂つ卦趨⒂^大羅素街的博物館后，寫下了一首獻給博物館的樂曲。多年后，卡爾·馬克思、布拉姆·斯托克和阿瑟·柯南·道爾也成了博物館著名閱覽室的?？汀?/p>

In 1972, the visit of the relics of Tutankhamen drew a record 1.8 million visitors to the museum. Then in 1980, it hosted a Viking exhibition. Currently, China's Hidden Century exhibition is being held at the museum to great acclaim.

1972年，參觀圖坦卡門遺物的游客達到創(chuàng)紀錄的180萬人次。1980年，博物館舉辦了維京海盜展。目前，該博物館正在舉辦的“中國隱秘世紀”展覽廣受好評。

But this summer, it is not who has been coming through the museum's doors that is being talked about, but it is what has been taken out of them, as a scandal over missing items has made hugely damaging international headlines.

但今年夏天，人們談?wù)摰牟皇钦l走進了博物館的大門，而是什么從博物館里被拿走了，因為一樁關(guān)于藏品丟失的丑聞成為了極具破壞性的國際頭條新聞。

When the story first broke in mid-August, the BBC reported that a staff member had been sacked and there was a police investigation over items that were "missing, stolen or damaged", with museum director Hartwig Fischer calling it "a highly unusual incident".

英國廣播公司（BBC）在8月中旬首次報道了這一事件，稱一名工作人員已被解雇，警方正在對“丟失、被盜或損壞”的物品進行調(diào)查，博物館館長哈特維格·菲舍爾稱這是“一起極不尋常的事件”。

But less than two weeks later, it was Fischer who was on his way out, with his deputy Jonathan Williams stepping back from duties, as the scandal and reputational damage to one of the world's most highly regarded historical institutions grew, with the revelation that there had been unheeded warnings over suspected thefts two years earlier.

但不到兩周后，菲舍爾就辭職了，他的副手喬納森·威廉姆斯也退居二線，因為這起丑聞和對這個世界上最受推崇的歷史機構(gòu)之一的聲譽造成的損害越來越大。

About 2,000 treasures are thought to have been stolen, but recovery has begun for some of them, BBC cited British Museum chairman George Osborne as saying on Aug 26.

英國廣播公司8月26日援引大英博物館主席喬治·奧斯本的話說，大約2000件珍寶被認為失竊，但其中一些已經(jīng)開始追回。

Alert ignored

警告被忽視

The items involved are dated from 15th century BC to 19th century AD, and had been kept primarily for academic and research purposes.

這些物品的年代從公元前15世紀到公元19世紀，主要用于學(xué)術(shù)和研究目的。

Osborne told BBC Radio 4's Today program that not all of the items were "properly cataloged and registered".

奧斯本告訴英國廣播公司四臺的“今日”節(jié)目，并非所有物品都“進行了適當(dāng)?shù)木幠亢偷怯洝薄?/p>

The BBC reported that art dealer Ittai Gradel alerted the museum in February 2021 when he saw items that belonged to it for sale online, but he received a reply from Williams in July that year, saying "there was no suggestion of any wrongdoing".

英國廣播公司報道稱，藝術(shù)品經(jīng)銷商伊泰·格拉德爾在2021年2月看到屬于博物館的物品在網(wǎng)上出售時向博物館發(fā)出了警告，但他在當(dāng)年7月收到了威廉姆斯的回復(fù)，稱“沒有任何不當(dāng)行為的跡象”。

Senior figures dismissed suggestions of theft as "wholly unfounded", and emails sent to Osborne said "all items are accounted for". But the truth was very different.

高層人士駁斥盜竊的說法“毫無根據(jù)”，發(fā)給奧斯本的電子郵件也稱“所有物品都已清點”。但事實卻大相徑庭。

"It is evident that the British Museum did not respond as comprehensively as it should have in response to the warnings in 2021, and to the problem that has now fully emerged … the responsibility for that failure must ultimately rest with the director," Fischer's resignation letter said.

費舍爾在辭職信中說：“很明顯，大英博物館沒有對2021年的警告和現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)完全顯現(xiàn)的問題做出應(yīng)有的全面回應(yīng)......最終責(zé)任必須由館長承擔(dān)?！?/p>

Though it is called the British Museum, the most frequently searched term on its website is "Egypt". Despite the location, many of its most famous pieces are from much further afield.

雖然名為大英博物館，但其網(wǎng)站上最常被搜索的詞卻是“埃及”。盡管大英博物館位于英國，但許多最著名的藏品卻來自其他國家和地區(qū)。

For many years, questions have been asked — and not always satisfactorily answered — about how some of them ended up in British hands.

多年來，人們一直在追問其中一些藏品是如何落入英國人手中的，但答案并不總是令人滿意。

Sloane, whose life's collection started the museum, was a highly respected medic, promoting inoculation against smallpox, and becoming president of both the College of Physicians and the Royal Society. But the museum's own biography of him acknowledges that he worked on slave plantations, and that his wife's family fortune, which helped fund his collection, also had links to slavery.

斯隆一生的收藏是博物館的起點，他是一位備受尊敬的醫(yī)生，提倡接種天花疫苗，并成為內(nèi)科學(xué)院和皇家學(xué)會的主席。但博物館自己為他撰寫的傳記承認，他曾在奴隸種植園工作過，他妻子的家族財富也與奴隸制有關(guān)，而這筆財富也為他的收藏提供了資金。

In addition to the contentious provenance of many of its exhibits, the security lapses exposed by the scandal have demolished the suggestion that the British Museum is a safer repository for priceless items of international cultural significance than their places of origin.

除了許多展品的來源備受爭議之外，丑聞暴露出的安全漏洞也使人們不再認為大英博物館是比其原產(chǎn)地更安全的具有國際文化意義的無價之寶的存放處。

One of the most high-profile examples of this is the long-running dispute with Greece over the marble friezes from the Parthenon in Athens, acquired by Thomas Elgin in the early part of the 1800s and subsequently sold to the museum. The other is the Benin bronzes, brought back by British soldiers from what is now southern Nigeria, in the late 19th century.

其中最著名的例子之一就是與希臘就雅典帕臺農(nóng)神廟大理石楣板的長期爭端，托馬斯·埃爾金在19世紀早期收購了這些大理石楣板，隨后賣給了大英博物館。另一件是19世紀末英國士兵從現(xiàn)在的尼日利亞南部帶回的貝寧青銅器。

Member of Parliament Bell Ribeiro-Addy, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Afrikan reparations, told The Guardian that the recent scandal, and the fact that there is a specific law — the 1963 British Museum Act preventing the return of such objects — highlighted the "insulting ridiculousness" of the situation.

非洲裔人賠償問題跨黨派議會小組主席、議員貝爾·里貝羅·阿迪告訴《衛(wèi)報》，最近的丑聞，以及有專門法律（1963年《大英博物館法》）阻止歸還此類文物的事實，表明這種情況“荒唐透頂”。

Unfolding scandal

不斷發(fā)展的丑聞

"One of the most insulting reasons that they've given is that the other countries that these items belong to would either not be able to take care of them or they are likely to be stolen," she said. "But you've got people in this country putting them on eBay."

她表示：“他們給出的一個最侮辱人的理由是，這些物品所屬的其他國家要么沒有能力處理這些物品，要么這些物品很可能被盜?！彼f：“但這個國家的人卻把它們放到了eBay上?！?/p>

Unsurprisingly, the Greek government has been watching the unfolding of the scandal closely, saying that it "reinforces the permanent and just demand of our country for the definitive return" of the marbles.

不出所料，希臘政府一直在密切關(guān)注著這起丑聞的發(fā)展，并表示這“堅定了我國對最終歸還大理石的永久而公正的要求。”

In an interview with newspaper To Vima, Greek Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni said the scandal brought into question the fundamental credibility of the British Museum.

希臘文化部長莉娜·門多尼在接受《To Vima》報采訪時說，丑聞使大英博物館的基本信譽受到質(zhì)疑。

"The loss, theft, deterioration of objects from a museum's collections is an extremely serious and particularly sad event," she said. "In fact, when this happens from within, beyond any moral and criminal responsibility, a major question arises regarding the credibility of the museum organization itself … the Ministry of Culture is following the development of the issue with great attention."

她表示：“博物館藏品的丟失、失竊和變質(zhì)是一件極其嚴重和特別令人痛心的事情。事實上，當(dāng)這種情況從內(nèi)部發(fā)生時，除了任何道德和刑事責(zé)任之外，博物館組織本身的信譽也會出現(xiàn)重大問題......我國文化部正在密切關(guān)注此事的發(fā)展?！?/p>

An unnamed Greek government official was quoted by the Financial Times as saying that the government "like others in the cultural community, are shocked by the scale of the theft … these issues have no direct bearing on our campaign for our legal right for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece, which continues unabated".

《金融時報》援引一位不愿透露姓名的希臘政府官員的話說，希臘政府“與文化界其他人士一樣，對盜竊案的規(guī)模感到震驚......這些問題與我們爭取帕特農(nóng)神廟浮雕回歸希臘的合法權(quán)利的活動沒有直接關(guān)系，我們的活動仍在繼續(xù)?！?/p>

In addition to the current temporary exhibition, which ends in October, there are around 23,000 pieces from China among the British Museum's estimated 8 million items, with some there since its foundation.

目前的臨時展覽將于10月結(jié)束，除此之外，在大英博物館約800萬件藏品中，約有2.3萬件來自中國，其中一些藏品自建館以來就一直在那里。

Given the importance that has recently been placed on repatriating Chinese cultural artifacts that have ended up overseas, the saga has been followed with interest in Beijing. There has been no formal comment from the authorities yet, but there was a strongly worded editorial piece about the issue in the Global Times on Aug 28.

鑒于近來對流失海外的中國文物回國的重視，中方一直在關(guān)注這一事件。中國政府尚未對此發(fā)表正式評論，但8月28日《環(huán)球時報》發(fā)表了一篇措辭強烈的社論。

Emiline Smith, a fellow of the Centre for Criminology at the University of Hong Kong and a lecturer at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, told China Daily that although the initial story had taken her by surprise, given the museum's status as being the epitome of safe guardianship, it was less of a shock when more details emerged.

香港大學(xué)犯罪學(xué)中心研究員、蘇格蘭格拉斯哥大學(xué)講師埃米琳·史密斯告訴《中國日報》，雖然最初的報道讓她大吃一驚，但考慮到博物館是安全監(jiān)護的縮影，當(dāng)更多細節(jié)出現(xiàn)時，她就不那么震驚了。

"It was clear that there was total lack of oversight and action contributing to an epic failure," she explained. "This isn't the first theft from a museum, and it's not the first insider theft either — anyone who's been in museum storage would know that things do go walkabout, and in this case, it was very clear that there is far too much in the collection for anyone to be able to control it effectively.

她解釋說：“很明顯，完全缺乏監(jiān)督和行動導(dǎo)致了史無前例的失敗?！彼忉屨f：“這不是博物館第一次失竊，也不是第一次內(nèi)部失竊--任何在博物館倉庫里呆過的人都會知道，東西確實會不翼而飛，而在這起案件中，很明顯藏品太多，任何人都無法對其進行有效控制?！?/p>

"It's a problem of documentation, but also a problem of funding in relation to the kind of oversight needed to avoid these things happening. In recent years, the former government's policy of austerity has clearly had a negative impact in terms of the loss of expertise and a weakening of the systems that could have prevented this happening, so it's quite ironic that the former chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne, one of the political architects of that policy, is now chairman of the museum, when this has emerged."

“這是一個歸檔的問題，也是一個資金的問題，涉及到避免這些事情發(fā)生所需的監(jiān)督。近年來，前政府的緊縮政策顯然產(chǎn)生了負面影響，導(dǎo)致專業(yè)人才的流失，削弱了本可以防止此類事件發(fā)生的系統(tǒng)，因此，前財政大臣喬治·奧斯本作為該政策的政治設(shè)計師之一，如今卻成為博物館的主席，而這一事件卻出現(xiàn)了，真是頗具諷刺意味?！?/p>

Although the British Museum had the misfortune to be caught out, other museums around the world, particularly ones with roots in colonialism, could face many of the same difficult questions.

雖然大英博物館不幸中招，但世界各地的其他博物館，尤其是那些與殖民主義有淵源的博物館，也可能面臨許多同樣棘手的問題。

In recent years, momentum has been building behind a wider global movement to repatriate items, and Smith said the publicity this incident has received had given that campaign renewed energy.

近年來，全球范圍內(nèi)掀起了一場遣返文物的運動，史密斯說，這次事件的曝光為這場運動注入了新的活力。

"It seems that for too long, the British Museum has been run by people who have regarded it as a private collection and think no one will ask any questions," she said. "It seems to have been operating on a too-big-to-fail mentality. This has been proven very wrong."

她說：”似乎長期以來，大英博物館都是由一些人在管理，他們把大英博物館視為私人收藏，認為沒有人會提出任何問題。”她說，“大英博物館似乎一直抱著‘大而不能倒’的心態(tài)在運營。事實證明這是大錯特錯的?！?/p>

China is one of many countries that will be keeping a close eye on how the story continues to develop, given the amount of items of its own heritage that are in different hands and distant lands. But as Smith pointed out, its approach to repatriation so far has been distinctive.

中國是密切關(guān)注此事后續(xù)發(fā)展的眾多國家之一，因為中國有大量的文物掌握在不同的人和遙遠的國度手中。但正如史密斯所指出的，迄今為止，中國對文物回歸的態(tài)度是與眾不同的。

"China has positioned itself slightly differently from other countries, as it's bought back items — normally countries of origin make a legal claim, involving law enforcement and suing, or go down the ethical route, making a public claim," Smith explained.

史密斯解釋說：“中國的定位與其他國家略有不同，因為它買回了文物--通常情況下，文物來源國會提出法律要求，包括執(zhí)法和起訴，或者走道德路線，提出公開要求?！?/p>

"Instead, China … has asked private donors to buy back objects, which are then reinstated through private museums, which has been effective — if Chinese items ever come up at auction, the room is sure to be full of Chinese buyers."

“相反，中國......要求私人捐贈者回購文物，然后通過私人博物館恢復(fù)原狀，這種做法很有效。如果中國的物品出現(xiàn)在拍賣會上，拍賣場上肯定會擠滿中國買家?！?/p>

Wider shock waves

更廣泛的沖擊

Although official voices have not been heard from China on the issue, the Global Times made it clear where the authorities stand over the matter.

盡管中國官方尚未就此事發(fā)出聲音，但《環(huán)球時報》清楚地表明了當(dāng)局對此事的立場。

"The Global Times statement showed a desire to go down the ethical route and hold countries accountable for the harms they have done through history," she explained.

她解釋說：“《環(huán)球時報》的聲明表明，中國希望走道德路線，讓各國為其在歷史上造成的傷害負責(zé)。”

The wider shock waves caused by the museum's very public crash and burn are likely to embolden efforts from communities of origin around the world to reclaim their heritage, a path of action cleared by the most unlikely of helpers — COVID-19.

博物館的公開坍塌和焚毀所引發(fā)的更大范圍的沖擊很可能會使世界各地的原住民社區(qū)更有勇氣重新找回他們的遺產(chǎn)，而最不可能的幫助者——新冠疫情——則為這一行動開辟了道路。

"The pandemic meant museums had to put their collections online, to maintain visitor interest, and that made it easier to discover where things are," she explained.

她解釋說：“新冠疫情意味著博物館必須將其藏品放到網(wǎng)上，吸引游客的興趣，這使得人們更容易發(fā)現(xiàn)藏品的下落?！?/p>

"Now people in even the remotest areas can get hold of a smartphone and follow the story and track things down, so you're getting countries and communities that haven't necessarily spoken up before saying that they want their heritage back. Politically, it's extremely interesting."

她解釋道：“現(xiàn)在，即使是最偏遠地區(qū)的人們也可以通過智能手機了解相關(guān)故事，追蹤相關(guān)物品，因此，以前不一定會說出來的國家和社區(qū)現(xiàn)在也會說，他們想要回自己的遺產(chǎn)。從政治層面來看，這非常有趣?！?/p>

As the museum looks to rebuild its credibility, Carl Heron, its director of scientific research, has been appointed as acting deputy director. But the museum's journey back to its former status will be a long one, with difficult decisions to be made along the way.

由于博物館希望重建其信譽，其科學(xué)研究主管卡爾·赫倫已被任命為代理副館長。但是，博物館恢復(fù)其昔日地位的道路將是漫長的，一路上需要做出艱難的決定。

What was initially described as a "highly unusual incident" has brought voices and spirits from the past into the spotlight of the present, and the final irony is that these items, long buried in dark archives, could end up shaping the future of the museum world.

最初被描述為“極不尋常的事件”將過去的聲音和精神帶到了現(xiàn)在的聚光燈下，而最后的諷刺是，這些長期埋藏在黑暗檔案中的物品最終可能會塑造博物館世界的未來。

"For years, momentum has been dictated by European and North American forces, but it's high time someone else took over at the wheel as what they have been doing has been shown to have failed," Smith said.

史密斯說：“多年來，歐洲和北美的力量一直在主導(dǎo)著博物館的發(fā)展勢頭，但現(xiàn)在是時候讓其他人來掌舵了，因為他們一直在做的事情已經(jīng)被證明是失敗的?！?/p>

"The world is ready for the British Museum to be reinvented, so it needs to take stock of what it has, and come up with an authentic and equitable safeguarding plan that is practical, as opposed to the outdated approach of the gentleman curator. If it changes those values, then there's hope it can reinvent and rebuild itself."

“世界已經(jīng)準(zhǔn)備好讓大英博物館重塑形象，因此它需要對自己所擁有的一切進行評估，并提出一個真實、公平、切實可行的保護計劃，而不是像紳士館長那樣采用過時的方法。如果它能改變這些價值觀，那么它就有希望重塑和重建自己?！?/p>

Artifact

英/?ɑ?t?f?kt/ 美/?ɑ?rt?f?kt/

n.（尤指有文化價值或歷史價值的）人工制品，歷史文物

Scandal

英/?sk?nd(?)l/ 美/?sk?nd(?)l/

n.丑行，丑聞