“The laws governing the antiquities trade are now so complicated that no one can be sure of them, and the chain of ownership for any given object–even when it is traceable–may be so tangled that nobody knows who officially owns what. But there is more at stake today than the fate of an antique vase or even a curator’s freedom. What hangs in the balance is the very future of museums. Or to put it another way, “Whither the Elgin Marbles?”