If Mona had her way, the only way to view the Benin bronzes or an Egyptian stela would be to go to the countries themselves. What a shame that would be for scholars and educators, or for children who would lose the chance to see actual antiquities from around the world up close. For Mona, there were no shades of gray whatsoever. Yet after Charlotte’s conversations on the subject with Annie while they were in Egypt, she’d come to understand that there were no easy answers to the question of repatriation.
The main question of the novel
