What happens when a large part of your country’s archaeological treasures “belongs” to another country that stole them? This is the situation that non-Western countries around the world find themselves in, with most of their cultural heritage residing in European and American museums, but particularly in London’s museums. British Museum.
Take Nigeria, for example. In 1897, British troops stole some 4,000 sculptures after invading the Kingdom of Benin (now southwest Nigeria). More than a century later, the surviving bronzes are on display in museums in the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria and the United States, but not in Nigeria, their country of origin. The 2018 film Black Panther nodded on this issue during a heist scene set in the fictional “Museum of Britain” where characters have recovered artifacts stolen from the (also fictional) African country of Wakanda.
1 / 5:
Nigeria has been asking the United Kingdom to return its Benin bronzes for decades, and in late 2018 the two countries reached an agreement under which the British Museum would send bronzes to Nigeria for the Royal Museum that the country plans to open in 2021 But above all, the British Museum says it’s only ready the sculptures– he still expects Nigeria to return goods stolen by Britain.
Around the same time the British Museum announced it would lend Nigeria its own artifacts, a protest theater troupe called “BP or not BP?” organized a “Stolen Goods Tour” at the British Museum. The tour highlighted artifacts such as the Gwaegal shield, which the British stole from Aboriginal Australians in the late 18th century. Like the Benin Bronzes, the British Museum refused to repatriate the Gwaegal Shield to Australia for museum exhibition in 2016. Instead, the British Museum loaned the shield and later collected it.
The list of stolen objects that the British Museum refuses to return goes on and on. Egypt wants to recover its Rosetta Stone and Easter Island asked the museum to return its Moai head statue. Even Greeceanother EU member, wants the museum to return certain Parthenon marbles, often called “Elgin marbles”, in homage to the Scottish nobleman who took them.
Of all the European countries holding stolen items, France has been the most responsive to calls for repatriation. French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris would return 26 objects stolen from the country of Benin (not to be confused with Nigeria’s former Kingdom of Benin). He also said he wanted to change French law so that France must return stolen items whenever a country requests it.
In contrast, the British Museum has specifically stated that it has no plans to repatriate the stolen objects. In response to the restitution of 26 objects by the Musée du Quai Branly, the director of the British Museum, Hartwig Fischer said The New York Times that “collections must be preserved in their entirety”. However, pressure for their return is likely to continue.
