To do so before they have returned the Maqdala treasures and the Benin Bronzes and the Easter Island statues and the Maori heads, before a coherent set of precepts for decolonization has been articulated, would affirm the wrong principle.
British Museum
Posted inNews
Curator Discovers What May Be the World’s Earliest Depiction of a Ghost
“Everybody in Mesopotamia, as far as I understand it, believed in ghosts,” said Irving Finkel, a curator of the British Museum’s Middle Eastern department.
Posted inNews
Art Dealer Used Offshore Accounts to Trade Looted Antiquities, Pandora Papers Say
Cambodian artifacts traded by dealer Douglas Latchford, accused of trafficking in looted art, are on view at the Met and the British Museum.
Posted inNews
Nigerian Artists Offer to Swap Work for British Museum’s Benin Bronzes
“We never stopped making the bronzes even after those ones were stolen,” said a founding member of the Ahiamwen Guild. “I think we make them even better now.”
Posted inNews
British Museum to Restore Ancient Vessels Shattered in Beirut Explosion
The damaged Roman and Islamic vessels were on display in the Archaeological Museum at the American University of Beirut during the explosion.
Posted inArt
Over 100 Unpublished Hokusai Drawings Resurface in New Exhibition
Created nearly 200 years ago for the artist’s unpublished The Great Picture Book of Everything, the works will go on view at the British Museum.
Posted inOpinion
How the Labels in the British Museum’s Africa Galleries Evade Responsibility
Despite the British Museum’s active participation in work towards restitution, the current display and captioning fail to be forthright or responsible.
Posted inArt
What to Make of Nero?
An exhibition takes on the notorious Roman emperor, from gleaming marble to roaring flames.
Posted inNews
Toga-clad Activists Crashed British Museum’s Reopening to Protest Oil Sponsorship
BP or Not BP? activists staged a protest against Big Oil sponsorship at the British Museum and Science Museum this weekend.
Posted inNews
A Rare, Looted Statue of a Greek Goddess Has Been Returned to Libya
The 2,000-year-old statue, believed to depict Persephone, is impeccably preserved.
Posted inArt
At British Museum, a Promising But Flawed Start to Grappling With Colonialism
“Empire and Collecting,” a new self-guided tour, reflects an attempt to help visitors understand the colonial origins of the collection.
Posted inOpinion
The British Museum Isn’t Doing Enough to Fight Illegal Antiquities Trafficking
While the museum presents its attempt to identify trafficked antiquities as an altruistic enterprise, its policing of the antiquities market also distracts from its historic role in acquiring looted objects.