How do cultural artifacts end up outside their country of origin? What are the different approaches that are being taken to repatriate historical treasures, and what barriers stand in the way of these efforts? What value do we give to objects of ancestral origin, and does it change with time?

Pierre Losson, a postdoctoral fellow at the Italian Academy at Columbia University, talks to RBI Director John Torpey about the politics of cultural heritage and what we can expect from international efforts to return ‘stolen’ artifacts to their homelands.

You can listen to it on iTunes here, on Spotify here, or on Soundcloud below. You can also find a transcript of the interview here.