What is the difference between looting and collecting? Theft and plundering? Or are they all the same

In “Whose Culture Is It?,” Anthony Appiah quotes a British officer overseeing the 1874 removal of objects from the Asante
palace in Kumasi (Ghana), noting that, “the work of collecting the treasures… was done honestly and well, without a single
case of looting.” (117) Clearly , this suggests that there’s a difference between looting and collecting. Since that time,
Western countries, especially cultural institutions like museums, have become more discriminating about how objects
come into their collections. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of instances in which nations, groups, and individuals
believe that objects belonging to them have been wrongly removed from their original location and should be returned.
In this paper, you should refer to your choice of cases that have raised, or could raise, questions of looting vs. collecting
and use these instances as the basis for forming your own opinion(s). You may not believe that all cases are alike. You
don’t have to do any reading beyond The Return of Cultural Treasures (one of your textbooks) and other reading assigned
for this course. Although you don’t have to read everything on this list, below are the most beneficial readings for this
assignment:
Blackboard:
• Appiah
• Libby
• Macdonald, “Collecting Practices”
• Greenfield, “Spoils”
Textbook:
• Besides the chapters that have already been assigned: chapt. 8, “International and regional regulation”; “chapt. 9, Art
theft and the art market,” chapt. 10, “Plunder.”
* Your paper should have a clear thesis statement on the first page in which you say what you are going to argue.
* You should cite all information that you used in your paper from the sources you consulted. You can use either MLA or
Chicago style; see the Olin Library web site for instructions, starting with the “Tutoring and Writing Center” link