The 105-carat Koh-i-Noor Diamond is part of the British Crown Jewels, and is on display at the Tower of London. The sign next to it says the gem was a gift from India to Britain, which doesn't tell the entire story. The nominal ruler of India was forced to give the diamond to his British overlords. But the history of the diamond goes back much further. It may be much older than the earliest records, which tell how the Indian diamond was embedded into the Peacock Throne built for Mughal ruler Shah Jahan in 1628. The Persians later took it when they invaded India. It changed hands several times, often violently, before it returned to India. There, it changed hands by violence again. When the British Empire took possession of India, the Koh-i-Noor Diamond was sent to Queen Victoria, and it's been in the British royal family ever since. But who does it really belong to?
“Post-colonial collections is a big topic everywhere,” says Jane Milosch, the director of Smithsonian’s Provenance Research Initiative. “There can be a reassessment for certain objects of, ‘we may have legal ownership, but does it make sense to keep this material?’” She cites a 2014 case in which the British Museum returned two bronze statues from Benin to Nigeria (they were taken during an attack in 1897 after British officers were killed during a trade mission).
But returning pillaged art and treasure from World War II, as complicated as that can be, is still far less complex than unraveling colonial history. “You’re dealing with countries that existed when the object was acquired, but they may not exist now—and countries who we had trade agreements with that may have different export laws now,” Milosch says. “Provenance is very complex and people aren’t used to processing a chain of ownership. By the time you hit the second or third owner over time, the information can get more difficult to research. This is why I say it’s important that these things not be yanked out of museums, because at least people have access and can study them until we know for sure if they were looted.”
So while art stolen during World War II and Egyptian tomb treasures are returned to their rightful owners, the Koh-i-Noor Diamond has a history of ownership changing hands by looting going back hundreds of years. Read the sordid history of the diamond and the controversy surrounding its ownership at Smithsonian.