Lawyer sends letter to Queen Elizabeth II for return of Halicarnassus Mausoleum pieces

ISTANBUL

A Turkish lawyer, Remzi Kazmaz, demands the return of some pieces from Bodrum’s famous Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, which are on display at the British Museum. DHA photo

A Turkish lawyer and film producer, Remzi Kazmaz, has sent a letter to the Queen of England Elizabeth II, demanding the return of some pieces from Bodrum’s famous Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, which are on display at the British Museum.

Kazmaz sent the letter to the Queen via the British Ambassador to Ankara and is currently waiting for a positive or negative answer to be given within the next two months, which is the official responding time.

If the Queen doesn’t send a satisfactory answer, Kazmaz says, they would apply to the European Court of Human Rights as a group of thirty lawyers.


Two of the seven wonders of the ancient world were located in Anatolia; one of which was the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, and the other the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in what is now Bodrum, in the Aegean province of Muğla.

Museum's response to Fisherman of Halicarnassus

Kazmaz says they would not accept a similar answer to that which was given to a Turkish writer, recalling a written exchange on the matter between the writer better known by his pen name The Fisherman of Halicarnassus, Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, and the British Museum.

The writer had sent a letter saying that the mausoleum could only find its value under Bodrum's blue sky, Kazmaz said.

However the museum's response was to color in blue the hall in which the mausoleum was on display to make the writer's wish come true.

Some pieces of the Halicarnassus Mausoleum were sent to the British Museum during the Ottoman period.