Knidos wants to regain its artifacts

The Lion and Demeter of Knidos, which were unearthed in the ancient city of Knidos in Datça, are on display at the British Museum. The Datça Municipality has begun a process to bring them homeDatça in the western province of Mu?la has initiated a process to return the Lion and Demeter of Knidos, which are currently on display at the British Museum in London, as well as the other artifacts at various Turkish museums to the district. 

Datça Mayor Gürsel Uçar said they were determined to get those artifacts back and would apply to the Culture and Tourism Ministry once again to this end. 

Stating the artifacts unearthed in Knidos had been kept in storage at museums and universities, Uçar said it was an unacceptable loss for Knidos. 

Uçar said they had previously applied to the ministry but their demands were refused on grounds that "small museums would be united with each other." He said the museums in Marmaris and Bodrum were not closed yet, and continued: 

"Artifacts unearthed in Knidos are being kept in storage at the Marmaris and Bodrum museums and Middle East Technical University [METU] and Selçuk University. We sent letters to the ministry to bring these artifacts back to Datça but did not get a result yet. We are determined to display them here and will continue to do our best to establish a museum in Datça like the ones in Marmaris and Bodrum."

He said they had designated a 20-hectare area on Uçurtma Hill in the district's Re?adiye neighborhood for the museum, adding, "Datça has two protected areas, one is Re?adiye and the other is in the old Datça neighborhood, which is crowded by people thanks to its structures. We want Re?adiye to be the same. We want to establish a museum here and to develop this area."