[6] At the British Museum, F. Madden, Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts, persuaded the trustees to purchase for 80 guineas (£84) the 82 pieces which he had been misled into believing was the entire hoard.

All the pieces in the back rank are sculptures of human figures: The knights are mounted on rather diminutive horses and are shown holding spears and shields.

[23] The chessmen were discovered in early 1831 in a sandbank at the head of Uig Bay on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.

After the Isle of Lewis was purchased by J. Matheson in 1844, Malcolm MacLeod and his family were evicted during the Highland Clearances which transformed the area into sheep farms.

[3] In June 2019 a warder piece, which had previously gone unrecognised for at least 55 years, emerged in Edinburgh,[3] and was purchased at a Sotheby's auction for £735,000 the following month, by an undisclosed buyer.

In 1888, they were again sold, but this time the purchaser was the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, who donated the pieces to the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh.

[28] An exhibition entitled "The Game of Kings: Medieval Ivory Chessmen from the Isle of Lewis" at The Cloisters in New York City included 34 of the chess pieces, all on loan from the British Museum.

[32] There were calls from Scottish National Party politicians in the Western Isles (notably Councillor Annie Macdonald, Alasdair Allan MSP and Angus MacNeil MP) for the return of the pieces to the place they were found.

Richard Oram, Professor of Medieval and Environmental History at the University of Stirling, agreed, arguing that there was no reason for there to be more than "a sample" of the collection in London.

These views were dismissed by Margaret Hodge, the then UK Minister of State in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, writing "It's a lot of nonsense, isn't it?

[24] The historical society in Uig, Comann Eachdraidh Ùig, which operates its museum near the find site, features detailed information about the chessmen and Norse occupation in Lewis.

[33][full citation needed] In October 2009, 24 of the pieces from London and 6 from Edinburgh began a 16 month tour of Scotland, partly funded by the Scottish Government, whose Mike Russell, Minister for Culture and External Affairs, stated that the Government and the British Museum had "agreed to disagree" on their eventual fate.

[34] Neil MacGregor, who at the time of the debate was director of the British Museum, was reported to say that it was Norway who was entitled to ask for them back, not Scotland.