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The artefacts from the British Museum’s collection are vaguely referred to on the museum’s website as “acquired in a variety of ways”. However, many of them were stolen. Some of the artefacts looted by the British Empire and still kept in the British Museum include:
• the Benin Bronzes from the Kingdom of Benin (modern-day Nigeria)
• the Elgin Marbles (also called the Parthenon Marbles) from Greece
• the Rosetta Stone from Egypt
• a moai (a statue from Easter Island)

• Do you know anything about the artefacts in the box?
• Which comment best describes how you feel about stolen artefacts being in possession of the British Museum?
o This is ridiculous. The museum should return the stolen goods and make amends to the affected countries.
o Colonialism is alive and well in the art world.
o The artefacts are probably safer in the British Museum and should stay there.
o The artefacts were stolen by the British Empire and the museum is not responsible for that.
o Who cares? No one goes to museums anymore.
• Do you know of any artefacts looted from your country or by your country? Where are they now?

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a) A museum is the place where a nation’s cultural
b) Many historical facts are not common
c) There are many areas of historic
d) Rarely do countries make
e) Many people enjoy collecting
f) In the past

1) interest where I live.
2) heritage is best preserved.
3) looting was much more common than nowadays. People didn’t respect personal property as much as they do now.
4) artefacts from different parts of the world.
5) knowledge because most people don’t care about history.
6) amends to the countries they wronged.

1. Match the sentence halves.

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6. Watch the video again. Listen for the sentences below and decide what the idioms in bold mean.
a) So what? Finders keepers! Shut up!
b) I’m pretty sure they don’t have a leg to stand on here. I’m probably going to take my stuff home today.
c) Let’s right this wrong. What do you say?
d) Look, it’s no hard feelings, mate. You can look at it, come on in.

7. Use the idioms from ex. 6 to react to the situations below. a) I want to sue them for violating my rights. b) I guess you win. c) Could I get my sandwich back, please? d) They lost some money because I gave them some bad investment advice.

8. Decide what you would say in support of or against the comments below. Use at least three words and phrases in the box.
• History is written by the victors.
• Cultural heritage is a key part of any group’s identity.

artefacts, common knowledge ,cultural heritage, not have a leg to stand on, historic, historical, loot ,make amends, right a wrong

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Video transcrit:
A long time ago, not that long ago, that's still very relevant. Everyone in Britain got in a big old boat and we set sail and we robbed , that'll sound far- fetched Everyone in the world. -Do you remember that one, what a spree that was , do you remember the great times, what a spree! And we got all the swag, didn't we ? And we took it back to the old blighty and we hid it, this is the clever part , we hid it in a museum. Last place anyone looks. Now are the modern days , and all the countries we stole from are asking for their stuff back, but don't worry we totally said a blanket No. Now a few of you are sitting there, I can see your angry faces -So what?! Finders Keepers ,shut up! And listen, in your defense "Finders Keepers, shut up " has worked very well for us so far. Gents who did it and knocked it out of the park " finders keepers, shut up ".
But even you gotta admit if someone stole something off you as in individual, it was your favorite thing and they nicked it,and you knew who nicked it by the way for a fact, it's not a hunch , you know who's stolen it. Everybody knows , it's common knowledge- some people's written books about it. They' ve definitely nicked it off you. You go to ask for it back , and they're just standing there. They're not even running away. And they're twice your size, they ain't scared. They haven't even bothered to hide it . They've done the opposite of hiding it actually. They put it in a glass display case, it's lit from 7 different angeles , real clear what it is. There's no disputing it's the same thing, that once belonged to you, cause there's a plaque next to it. Says exactly what it is at the top of the plaque and then a paragraph underneath about how important it is to you and your culture. You'd be forgiven for thinking " Mmm I'm pretty sure they haven't got a leg to stand on here. "Probably gonna take this home today" Must have been so confident, all of them countries, when they ask for their stuff back. Walking up to Britain, saying to their friends "Wait in the car, don't even need ya. Be back in a jiffy mate. "
"Hey man, a while ago, a lot of your ancestors stole loads of stuff from my ancestors. Yeah, I'm here to take them home. Let's right this wrong , what do you say?" They must have thought the British person at the door was gonna go . " Absolutely you can have them back. We stole them after all. " But instead we went " I don't think so, we're still looking at it." "Yeah, just looking at it these days. And there is a lot of other people who haven't seen it yet, we'd quite like to show it to. So not right now selfish. Don't sulk about it. Look, there is no hard feelings mate. Hey, you can look at it, come on in. Have a look, have a look. Seem familiar? Ahhha-ahaaa! Stand behind the rope!!!! " That's why the British museum is so busy all the time. No British people ever go in there, it's full of people from abroad looking at their own stuff. Just walking the corridors , reminiscing about the good old days. And I imagine just openly robbing the gift shop at the end. That is one all you punks.