Portrait of a Thief imagines what would happen if some overly confident 20-somethings proved the life of museum objects isn’t as clear-cut as it seems.
Cultural Repatriation
Posted inOpinion
An Unlikely Pair Doing the Work of Repatriating Indian Heritage
Recently, Art Recovery International and India Pride Project have collaborated to successfully recover and return priceless cultural objects stolen from India.
Posted inOpinion
Repatriation is a Start, but True Healing for Benin Requires More
Equity should be discussed in the form of European and American institutions partnering with the Benin government to create sustainable museums.
Posted inOpinion
Austria Should Repatriate the Mexica Headdress
The headdress in Austria is the only one of its kind and it’s not only a work of art, but a representation of the identity and landscape of Mexico that was stripped from the nation by colonial forces.
Posted inOpinion
The Louvre Shouldn’t Exhibit Trafficked Antiquities from Libya and Syria
The museum forgets that it is already a violent graveyard of colonial-era cultural trophies removed from their homelands under dubious circumstances.
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 inOpinion
Stumbling Towards Repatriation
We need to make it clear to our museums that we do not want to walk around in galleries of stolen artworks.
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.
Posted inArt
One Museum’s Complicated Attempt to Repatriate a “Benin Bronze”
The RISD Museum has held this Benin bronze head in its collection for 80 years. “No one would have given it up unless under duress,” the curators say. But tracing its provenance and repatriating it is no simple matter.
Posted inIn Brief
As Belgium Reopens Africa Museum, DR Congo Demands Restitution of Artifacts
Belgium’s occupation of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the most brutal chapters of colonial history. Now, the African country is asking for its artifacts and artworks back from Europe.
Posted inArt
A French Report on Repatriating African Cultural Heritage Stirs the Pot
Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr and French art historian Bénédicte Savoy were charged by the French president to develop a clear framework for the potential restitution of African art to several African nations.
Posted inIn Brief
Easter Islanders Are Visiting British Museum to Request Repatriation of Ancestral Heritage
“For us [the statue] is a brother; but for them it is a souvenir or an attraction,” said a member of the Easter Island development commission, Anakena Manutomatoma.