Submitted by ThrowRA-Fast-Guava t3_117h5f5 in relationship_advice
TLDR: My sister's fiancee's family is hoarding art and historical artifacts in their home. Now she's angry at me for calling them out and demanding they be donated to a museum.
My F(22) sister's (F24) fiancee (M27) is descended from European nobility. Until recently I had assumed that this was purely genetic and for the most part he and his family were middle class people from a normal background.
Her fiancee is a bit quiet and a rather private individual, but pretty polite and he seemed friendly enough with my parents. My father and him seemed to share a love of history, and when my sister and her fiancee would visit, my dad and her fiancee would spend many evenings talking about some historical event or another.
Recently my sister told me that he was inviting us to his family home in order to meet his parents and spend the winter holidays in Europe. My parents wanted to go and I wasn't really going to miss out on a free vacation opportunity (Her fiancee was paying) so I accepted as well.
Well my family finally revealed to me that his family isn't just related to nobility, but are technically nobles. And although there is no legal distinction between them and the rest of society, they still have some of their former homes and possessions.
In their massive home is a huge collection of really old art and historical artifacts that his family has been hoarding away from the public. Apparently the family just keeps them there for themselves and their guests to enjoy while the public can't even access to them.
While her fiancee's dad was giving us a tour I pointed out that most of these pieces should be in a museum, where everyone could enjoy them. But her fiancee's dad told me that they've been in his family for centuries and as a result belong to them. This arrogant response annoyed me a lot so I tried to explain to him that simply owning them didn't entitle his family to keep them away from the public domain and deny people the right to see them. At this point her fiancee seemed to get frustrated and he told me that his family had earned them through good service to previous monarchs and as a reward/compensation for military service.
I wanted to push back but my mom told me to stop and that I was somehow being rude. My sister pulled me aside and told me that I was embarrassing her in front of her fiancee's family and that I had been invited into someone's home and should show some "respect and decency".
I decided I didn't want to cause any problems and I tried to just stay quiet while her fiancee's dad finished the tour. But after they pulled out some African and Asian vases and ornaments I had to speak up and point out that they were keeping stolen cultural pieces in their home and that they had been robbed from their original indigenous peoples. This caused a big argument and the fiancee's dad began to explain how they were given in compensation for military service in Senegal and that his ancestors had fought for them... etc, etc.
I kept telling them that they were stealing and that they're hoarding pieces that the public and original countries had a right to have access to. I pointed out that this collection couldn't be completely legal and that it should be reported to the authorities in case there weren't allowed to keep some of the pieces. My parents got extremely angry at me and were telling me to be quiet and and leave the room, while my sister was literally backing up her fiancee and his dad, repeating their arguments and justifying the collection.
My mom ended up dragging me out of the room and sending me to collect my things. My parents told me to leave and made me stay at a nearby hotel for the rest of the stay and my refused to let me stay with them at the fiancee's home, his family didn't even invite me to the activities they had planned for my family and I was forced to spend the rest of the time alone at the hotel.
It's been a month now since my parents and I returned and they're still pissed. My mom says I "humiliated" them and made them look "uncultured and unappreciative", while my dad barely speaks to me and says I should "take a history course this semester" so that I can "actually understand" what I'm talking about. My sister has blocked me and apparently doesn't want anything to do with me right now.