https://theprogressnetwork.org/art-repatriation-2023/
"On Monday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak canceled a planned meeting with
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis after Mitsotakis made the case for the
return of the Elgin Marbles in a BBC interview. The Elgin Marbles are statues
that were taken from the Parthenon and the Acropolis of Athens in the early
1800s, when Greece was under Ottoman rule, at the behest of the British
ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, the Earl of Elgin. (It’s debated whether or
not the Earl had permission from the Ottoman sultan, and whether that should
matter.) They’re now on display at the British Museum.
Mitsotakis’ argument was nothing new. The Greeks have been asking for the
Marbles back since 1835, after they declared independence. The more modern
discussion about art repatriation—the return of stolen or looted artifacts to
their country of origin—is not new, either. African leaders have been banging
that drum since the 60s, with Belgium returning artifacts for the first time in
1976 to former colony Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
But Belgium’s move was the beginning and end of actual repatriation for a long
while. French art historian Bénédicte Savoy writes in
Africa’s Struggle for
Its Art that it was the Greeks’ renewed request for the Marbles’ return in the
late 70s and early 80s that distracted the world away from Africa, unwittingly
stopping the discussion in its tracks.
Recently, however, not only has the discussion been taken back up, but also
acted upon. A 2022 review of Savoy’s book in
The New Yorker credits France’s
president, Emmanuel Macron, with starting the trend in 2017, when “during a
state visit to Burkina Faso, he declared that ‘African heritage cannot solely
exist in private collections and European museums.’ The next year, his
government issued a report that shocked many in the museum world, calling for
permanent returns of looted art. France has since repatriated dozens of major
works to Senegal, Madagascar, and Benin.”
It’s not just France. This year, the Netherlands gave back what is known as the
“Lombok treasure,” precious stones and jewelry looted from former colonies
Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Several institutions across countries, from Germany to
the United States to Scotland, have returned objects from Nigeria’s Benin
bronzes, a collection of several thousand plaques and sculptures that were
taken during the British raid of Benin City in 1897. In 2022, Belgium returned
another 84,000 artifacts to the DRC."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
