The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution
The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution OTHER ARTICLES New York Times 'Best Art Books' 2020 'Essential' – Sunday Times 'Brilliantly enraged' - New York Review of Books 'A real game-changer'– EconomistWalk into any Western museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire. They sit behind plate glass: dignified, tastefully lit. Accompanying pieces of card offer a name, date and place of origin. They do not mention that the objects are all stolen.Few artefacts embody this history of rapacious and extractive colonialism better than the Benin Bronzes - a collection of thousands of metal plaques and sculptures depicting the history of the Royal Court of the Obas of Benin City, Nigeria. Pillaged during a British naval attack in 1897, the loot was passed on to Queen Victoria, the British Museum and countless private collection...