"What about the recent theft from the Louvre, the 2,000 items stolen from the British Museum last year, or environmental activists pouring oil on Egyptian artefacts in Germany?"

Said Monica Hanna, dean of Egypt’s Arab Academy for Science and Technology, addressing the argument that "Western museums" offer better security.

Quoted in "Now give us back Rosetta Stone and other treasures, Egyptians demand/Campaigners say the Grand Egyptian Museum opening strengthens the country’s moves to have ancient looted artefacts returned" (London Times).

What's up with the British spelling "artefact"? The Latin root is "artēfactum," just combines "skill" and "thing" to mean "thing made," and the French word was "artefact." The American spelling — "artifact" — reflects the thinking of Noah Webster, who scorned spelling based on etymology and foreign languages — especially French.

As for the Rosetta Stone: Make 10 replicas and place them in 10 museums, including the British Museum and the Grand Egyptian Museum, and hide the real thing in a vault somewhere.

"The word 'innovate' — to make new — used to have chiefly negative connotations..."

"... it signified excessive novelty, without purpose or end. Edmund Burke called the French Revolution a 'revolt of innovation'; Federalists declared themselves to be 'enemies to innovation.' George Washington, on his deathbed, was said to have uttered these words: 'Beware of innovation in politics.' Noah Webster warned in his dictionary, in 1828, 'It is often dangerous to innovate on the customs of a nation.'"

From "The Disruption Machine/What the gospel of innovation gets wrong," an excellent New Yorker article by Jill Lepore.