The museum forgets that it is already a violent graveyard of colonial-era cultural trophies removed from their homelands under dubious circumstances.
Tag: Cultural Repatriation
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.
Posted inArt
Should the Getty Return Its Famed “Victorious Youth” Statue?
In the Italian city of Pesaro last month, a court ruled that the Getty Museum’s prized “Victorious Youth” statue should be returned to Italy, and in response, the J. Paul Getty Trust issued a public reply, noting that Italy has no cultural claim on the statue.
Posted inArt
British Exhibitions of Ethiopian Manuscripts Prompt Questions About Repatriation
Exhibitions at British cultural institutions have lately underscored the artistic output of Ethiopian scribes, and in the process, have also renewed questions around whether museums that have benefitted from acts of imperialism and colonialism should now return looted objects.
Posted inOpinion
Museums Should Consider Why They’ve Become Targets of Attack and Protest
A terror plot targeting the British Museum was recently thwarted, but the reasons why it became a target in the first place go far beyond the current political climate.
Posted inArt
Why an Indigenous Australian Wants the British Museum to Return His Ancestor’s Shield
Rodney Kelly is campaigning the museum to repatriate the Gweagal shield, which belonged to his great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather.