Throughout history, acts of war such as bombardment as well as pillage and theft by invading forces are obvious threats cultural heritage. Especially, the illicit trade in cultural objects is now widely recognized as one of the most prevalent categories of intemational crime. Repatriations of cultural propeπy have already been extensively carried out by legal actions, by diplomatic pressure, by private donations or purchase, and so on since last decade. In the early 1970s, the concept of restitution crystallized around two basic issues: the removal of such cultural property from country of origin during the colonial period and the problem of continuing illicit traffic of cultural property which perpetuates and sometimes exceeds the past outflow. Increasing recognition of the significance of the cultural heritage as a source of information, knowledge, identity and continuity, and its important role in elucidating the various human civilization have increased the awareness of the responsibility of museum to preserve the cultural heritage as intact as possible for succeeding generations. Both problems of the illicit trade of cultural objects and the pillage of cultural property have forced members of the intemational community to act collectively the promulgation and pronouncement of intemational and national instrument and declarations. In this circumstance, the museum community is playing an active role in the protection of cultural objects, not only because of the losses sustained by museums but also because of a concem among museum professionals about the threat the illicit trade poses to the world’s cultural heritage. However, such efforts are not the absolute remedy to relieve the chronic problems around cultural property. From the historical perspective, the evolution of museums in the past two centuries has inevitably been intertwined with the colonial factors, often disenfranchising and indigenous people as prisoner of collections and archives. Indigenous pe
Introduction Museums and Collecting Conclusion References