a can of worms no matter the outcome... but is the knee jerk PC answer actually the best?

Mankind has been roaming around this planet for one hundred thousand years... and trading stuff... losing stuff for all that length of time as well. Even documented looting is hard enough to get sorted out in the end... ie. how much of the Nazi's loot is back where it belongs? And that was fairly recent.

Using the argument of sacredness isn't a sure thing... we have present day mosques built on former christian churches that used old greek and roman stonework for building materials. Anyone care to make that call?

Right now it is pretty much possession being 9/10's of the law. The point that anyone was free to bid is as "fair" as possible. Without a provenance showing where the items were obtained, it is moot how they got to Paris. Families and small tribal units often died out without any survivors, but their possessions remained behind.

I live in western New York State... and grew up on eastern Long Island. Both areas were part of native American tribal land. I'm not about to "give back" the 80 acres that I bought & live on if a Seneca tribe decides they want to bring suit. And there is just such a court case in central upstate NY, regarding reparations for large tracts of land that were taken during colonial times.

My point is that history is filled with just and unjust happenings. And it's easy to be self righteous when it's someone else who has to pay the price.