Recently, many countries have asked the British Museum to return the cultural relics as soon as possible. According to the news disclosure, a large number of cultural relics in the museum were illegally obtained from other countries (Including Egypt, China, Greece, Yemen, Rome, Scotland, Japan, India and other Southeast Asian countries) , some were purchased by fraud, some were stolen by robbery, and Britain also legislated to protect these cultural relics obtained through illegal and unrecognized channels.

For many years, the main reason and basis for the British Museum's refusal to return artifacts was the British Museum Act, amended by the British Parliament in 1963, which essentially prohibited the museum from returning any collection.