Yves Michaud, a philosopher and art critic, and Salvatore Settis, an art historian and archaeologist, discuss a subject of great relevance today: the issue of returning artworks and ‘important objects’ to their original source. Taking the example of the marbles Lord Elgin removed from the Parthenon at the beginning of the 19th century, which are housed in the British Museum, Settis shows how there are many misconceptions and a long history that need to be known to realise what is in play in terms of the claims for repatriation; Michaud, looking at the issue from an anthropological viewpoint, demonstrates that these operations are hugely complex and that they often end up being used to back up a concept of museums as spaces for chauvinistic propaganda.