This artist 'stole' the Rosetta Stone from the UK and took it home to Egypt

When Chidi Nwaubani started dreaming up a new art project during downtime in COVID-19 lockdowns, his first step was to consult a lawyer."I was like, 'Wait, is this actually legal? Can someone do this?'" explains the Nigerian British artist and designer.Nwaubani wanted to know if he could create a digital form of the Rosetta Stone, which is now housed in the British Museum after being taken from Egypt in 1799 by Napoleon's troops But it specifies in their terms and conditions that you are permitted to take 3D scans.And that helped guide Nwaubani's plans."It's funny, it was a legal investigation that led to the actual final concept."Under the collective name Looty, Nwaubani and fellow artist Ahmed Abokor entered the British Museum and took a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scan of the stone on an iPad Pro.They used some 3D tools to clean it up, and then they had a digital canvas of the Rosetta Stone.Soon after, they flew to Egypt and used geo-located augmented reality — similar to the tech behind Pokémon Go — to put it back