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#Post#: 571--------------------------------------------------
Museum decolonization
DIR By: 90sRetroFan
Date: July 29, 2020, 2:11 am
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OLD CONTENT
This is an issue which has been given far too little media
attention, and even discussion by ourselves, when in fact it is
(much like the more high-profile issue of toppling of
colonialist statues) a very good way to raise introductory-level
awareness of colonial history, as you get to directly look at
the sheer quantity of stolen property and how proudly it is all
displayed in Western museums, evidence of nonexistent Western
remorse towards colonialism.
The True Left must demand returning to original owners ALL
museum artifacts acquired by violence during the colonial era,
as well as providing apology and compensation to all victims. To
examine just one example out of many such museums (arguments
equally applicable to all similar museums):
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum#Controversy
--- Quote ---
> It is a point of controversy whether museums should be allowed
to possess artifacts taken from other countries,[7][91] and the
British Museum is a notable target for criticism. The Elgin
Marbles, Benin Bronzes and the Rosetta Stone are among the most
disputed objects in its collections, and organisations have been
formed demanding the return of these artefacts to their native
countries of Greece, Nigeria and Egypt respectively. Parthenon
Marbles claimed by Greece were also claimed by UNESCO among
others for restitution. From 1801 to 1812, Elgin's agents took
about half of the surviving sculptures of the Parthenon, as well
as sculptures from the Propylaea and Erechtheum.
>
> In recent years, controversies pertaining to reparation of
artefacts taken from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing during the
Anglo-French invasion of China in 1860 have also begun to
surface.[92] The ransacking and destruction of the Chinese
palaces has led to unhealed historical wounds in Chinese
culture. Victor Hugo condemned the French and British for their
plundering.[93] The British Museum and the Victoria & Albert
Museum, among others, have been asked since 2009 to open their
archives for investigation by a team of Chinese investigators as
a part of an international mission to document lost national
treasures. However, there have been fears that the United
Kingdom may be asked to return these treasures.[94] As of 2010,
Neil MacGregor, the Director of the British Museum, said he
hoped that both British and Chinese investigators would work
together on the controversial collection, which continues to
result in resentment in China.[95]
>
> The British Museum has refused to return these artefacts,
stating that the "restitutionist premise, that whatever was made
in a country must return to an original geographical site, would
empty both the British Museum and the other great museums of the
world".[96] The museum has also argued that the British Museum
Act of 1963 legally prevents any object from leaving its
collection once it has entered it. Nevertheless, it has returned
items such as the Tasmanian Ashes after a 20-year-long battle
with Australia.[97]
>
> The British Museum continues to assert that it is an
appropriate custodian and has an inalienable right to its
disputed artefacts under British law.
--- End Quote ---
In ethical terms, the British Museum clearly has no leg to stand
on. If one individual steals from another, does the thief have
an "inalienable right" to retain the stolen property just
because he has kept it on display inside his house for the
viewing pleasure of his own guests (who may or may not be
required to pay a viewing fee)? If not, then how is it different
merely that the entity doing the looting plundering stealing was
the British Empire?
And no, this has nothing to do with returning objects to the
"where they were made", a shameless attempt at obfuscation. If
an object was made in X, sold to Y and then stolen by Z, the
artefact should be returned to Y, not to X. This is about
returning objects to their true owners.
And yes, returning them would indeed empty "the great museums of
the world". Would anyone take seriously a complaint by a thief
that he should not return stolen property because it would empty
his "great house"? (Is this the same "great" as the one in
M[insert Western country here]GA?) Here is some of the stuff
that has to be returned:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum#Department_of_Ancient_Egypt_and_Sudan
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum#Department_of_the_Middle_East
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum#Department_of_Asia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum#Department_of_Africa,_Oceania_and_the_Americas
As for the British Museum Act of 1963, that is an explicitly
colonialist law right there, the very kind of law we want to
bring attention to. If a thief asserts that a law exists
applicable inside his house that makes it illegal for property
to leave his house once it has entered it, would you take him
seriously? He is basically saying that it is OK for him to steal
from you, but not OK for you to seek redress! (Is this what
rightists actually mean when they say "It's OK to be white"?)
This is literal Talmudism.
And here we come to the reality: if the British Museum, true to
its colonial heritage, maintains its Talmudist attitude, how do
we get back our stolen property? We must simply disregard the
British Museum Act of 1963, just as we disregard all laws which
are based on ingroup/outgroup double-standards. If they will not
give it back, we simply take it back.
Corbyn appears to be on our side:
www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/06/03/jeremy-corbyn-says-would-return-elgin-marbles-greece-elected/
--- Quote ---
> Jeremy Corbyn will order the British Museum to return the
Elgin Marbles to Greece if elected Prime Minister, opening the
door to dozens of historical artefacts being repatriated under a
Labour government.
--- End Quote ---
---
Surprisingly, the US actually has a somewhat decent policy on
this issue. The Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) became law in 1990.
--- Quote ---
> The Act requires federal agencies and institutions that
receive federal funding[1] to return Native American "cultural
items" to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated Indian
tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. Cultural items include
human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of
cultural patrimony. A program of federal grants assists in the
repatriation process and the Secretary of the Interior may
assess civil penalties on museums that fail to comply.
> ...
> Lastly, NAGPRA makes it a criminal offense to traffic in
Native American human remains without right of possession or in
Native American cultural items obtained in violation of the Act.
Penalties for a first offense may reach 12 months imprisonment
and a $100,000 fine.
> ...
> Since the legislation passed, the human remains of
approximately 32,000 individuals have been returned to their
respective tribes. Nearly 670,000 funerary objects, 120,000
unassociated funerary objects, and 3,500 sacred objects have
been returned.[5]
>
> The statute attempts to mediate a significant tension that
exists between the tribes' communal interests in the respectful
treatment of their deceased ancestors and related cultural items
and the scientists' individual interests in the study of those
same human remains and items. The act divides the treatment of
American Indian human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects,
and objects of cultural patrimony into two basic categories.
Under the inadvertent discovery and planned excavation component
of the act and regulations, if federal officials anticipate that
activities on federal and tribal lands after November 16, 1990
might have an effect on American Indian burials—or if burials
are discovered during such activities—they must consult with
potential lineal descendants or American Indian tribal officials
as part of their compliance responsibilities. For planned
excavations, consultation must occur during the planning phase
of the project. For inadvertent discoveries, the regulations
delineate a set of short deadlines for initiating and completing
consultation. The repatriation provision, unlike the ownership
provision, applies to remains or objects discovered at any time,
even before the effective date of the act, whether or not
discovered on tribal or federal land. The act allows
archaeological teams a short time for analysis before the
remains must be returned. Once it is determined that human
remains are American Indian, analysis can occur only through
documented consultation (on federal lands) or consent (on tribal
lands).
--- End Quote ---
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_Graves_Protection_and_Repatriation_Act
Western plunderers complain that this repatriation causes
"science" to "lose out" on the artifacts which are being taken
away from dusty museum shelves. Contrary to Western hubris,
Native American groups are actually very interested in studying
their past, and many recent studies in archaeology and genetics
have been conducted by researchers who actually bother to
consult with Native American communities and engage in
respectful dialogue about the purpose and scope of the studies.
Who would have thought that this approach of treating people
with respect would be more effective at generating knowledge
than plundering and treating the groups being studied as
dehumanized 'test subjects'?
---
"Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act"
Could the spirit of this Act be extended such that the US
demands foreign museums (e.g. British Museum) to return stolen
American artefacts? Having the US join in the voices demanding
for return of stolen property would symbolically side the US
with the victims of colonialism, as we wish it.
"Western plunderers complain that this repatriation causes
"science" to "lose out" on the artifacts which are being taken
away from dusty museum shelves. Contrary to Western hubris,
Native American groups are actually very interested in studying
their past, and many recent studies in archaeology and genetics
have been conducted by researchers who actually bother to
consult with Native American communities and engage in
respectful dialogue about the purpose and scope of the studies."
I despise the notion that we must placate such complainers. The
attitude we should be promoting is: if "science" does "lose
out", SCREW THEM. Even if Native American groups had no interest
in subsequently cooperating with researchers, they still deserve
stolen artefacts back. One of the reasons why we are here is to
destroy the Western notion that research justifies initiation of
violence.
"Who would have thought that this approach of treating people
with respect would be more effective at generating knowledge
than plundering and treating the groups being studied as
dehumanized 'test subjects'?"
I re-emphasize:it DOES NOT MATTER whether treating people with
respect is more effective or less effective at generating
knowledge. By arguing that treating people with respect is more
effective at generating knowledge, you allow our enemies to
argue that IF disrespect is more effective at generating
knowledge, THEN disrespect is acceptable. Only by ceasing to
view generating knowledge - a form of accumulationism - as
valuable in itself are we truly de-Westernized.
---
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/benin-bronzes-british-museum-nigeria-stolen-imperialist-treasures-return-loan-elgin-marbles-looted-a8414661.html
--- Quote ---
> Nigeria might be willing to let Britain, the imperial power
that stole its Benin Bronzes, return them on just a loan basis
rather than giving them back permanently, it has emerged.
>
> While other countries, like Greece over the Elgin Marbles,
have refused to accept anything other than a permanent return of
treasures seized during the colonial era, it seems that some
Nigerian officials might be willing to settle for borrowing back
what was stolen from them.
>
> Nigeria has been seeking the return of the bronzes ever since
the country gained independence from Britain in 1960. The
treasures were plundered during a punitive British expedition in
1897, which culminated in Benin City being burned and looted.
--- End Quote ---
The only way this could end well is if Nigeria then refuses to
give up the items after the loan period expires. Otherwise
Nigeria would just be humiliating itself.
France seems to have a better attitude on the issue:
www.france24.com/en/20181123-france-return-african-art-benin-macron-quai-branly-colonial-british-museum
--- Quote ---
> President Emmanuel Macron announced Friday that France would
return 26 works of art to Benin, hours after he was presented
with a report calling for thousands of African artworks in
French museums and taken during the colonial period to be
returned.
>
> The report, by French art historian Bénédicte Savoy and
Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr, recommends that French
museums give back work if African countries request them.
>
> The report estimates that up to 90 percent of African art is
outside the continent, including statues, thrones and
manuscripts. Some70,000 of the estimated 90,000 works of
sub-Saharan art in France’s public collections are held by just
one museum, the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, which opened in
2006 to showcase non-European art, much of it from former French
colonies.
>
> It will be up to Macron to determine the feasibility of the
report’s recommendations. France has strict laws that consider
African artifacts state property even if they were taken
illicitly. Removing any works from the state collections will
require an amendment to currentcultural heritage laws.
>
> Museums throughout Europe are watching closely for what
happens next. The report notes that hundreds of thousands of
other objects are housed in Belgium, the UK, Austria and
Germany. The national museums of Africa, on the other hand,
rarely have collections exceeding 3,000 works, said the report,
and those objects often have less artistic value. Any
restitution programme in France could increase pressure on other
nations to return objects from their own collections.
--- End Quote ---
Here is a French colonialist siding with the British Museum's
attitude:
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHzHGhYlkVg
An honourable France would cut out his tongue and send it along
with the returned artifacts as apology.
---
www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/26/meps-pass-watershed-resolution-action-against-structural-racism-people-african-descent
--- Quote ---
> It also calls on member states to declassify their colonial
archives and consider “some form of reparations” for crimes of
the colonial era, including public apologies and the restitution
of artefacts from museums. “Some member states have taken steps
towards meaningful and effective redress for past injustices and
crimes against humanity – bearing in mind their lasting impacts
in the present,” the resolution states.
>
> The EU institutions and other member states are called on to
follow this example.
>
> “Histories of injustices against Africans and people of
African Descent – including enslavement, forced labour, racial
apartheid, massacre, and genocides in the context of European
colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade – remain largely
unrecognised and unaccounted for at an institutional level in EU
member states,” the text states.
--- End Quote ---
As for redress, instant citizenship of colonialist states for
all people from their respective former colonies would be a
reasonable start.
---
www.euronews.com/2019/07/12/tutankhamun-bust-goes-up-for-auction-in-london-as-egypt-renews-calls-to-cancel
--- Quote ---
> Egypt has requested help from Interpol to retrieve a bust of
Tutankhamun that was sold at auction in London last week for
over £4.7 million (€5.2 million).
>
> A lawsuit in the UK has also been launched on behalf of Egypt.
>
> In a statement released on Tuesday, Egypt's National Committee
of Antiquities said it felt "deep dissatisfaction" at Christie's
auction house for allegedly ignoring requests to postpone the
sale.
>
> The statement added that a "great surprise" was also felt at
receiving less than expected support from British authorities
upon the request.
>
> Egyptian authorities campaigned to postpone the auction last
Thursday amid claims the 28.5cm-high quartzite statue had been
looted from Karnak Temple in Luxor.
>
> But Christie's maintains that it had provided "extensive
information" about the bust.
>
> Speaking to the Guardian, the auction house said Egyptian
officials had been invited to meet with their representatives to
discuss the relevant documentation, but that the offer had not
been taken up.
>
> Egypt's antiquities committee says no such legitimate proof
had been shown in the way of deeds or documents showing the
artefact's legal departure from the country.
>
> The 3,000-year-old bust was sold from the Resandro Collection,
a private collection of Egyptian art that was sold in part in
2016 for more than £3m (€3.3m).
--- End Quote ---
"Great surprise"? What the fuck did you expect from your own
colonizer?
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTl4-E5B1rA
(At least the comments are encouraging.....)
#Post#: 572--------------------------------------------------
Re: Museum decolonization
DIR By: 90sRetroFan
Date: July 29, 2020, 2:11 am
---------------------------------------------------------
OLD CONTENT contd.
This is integrity:
www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/16072019-british-museum-trustee-resigns
--- Quote ---
> The British-Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif has resigned from
the British Museum’s board of trustees in protest at the
institution’s position on issues such as sponsorship,
outsourcing and repatriation.
> ...
> Soueif also criticised the institution’s response to the
debate on repatriation that has been opened up by the report
commissioned by the French president Emmanuel Macron last year,
which recommended proactive restitution of looted African
objects.
>
> “The British Museum, born and bred in empire and colonial
practice, is coming under scrutiny. And yet it hardly speaks,”
wrote Soueif. “It is in a unique position to lead a conversation
about the relationship of south to north, about common ground
and human legacies and the bonds of history. Its task should be
to help us all to imagine a better world, and – along the way –
to demonstrate the usefulness of museums.”
>
> Soueif continued: “The British Museum is not a good thing in
and of itself. It is good only to the extent that its influence
in the world is for the good. The collection is a starting
point, an opportunity, an instrument. Will the museum use it to
influence the future of the planet and its peoples? Or will it
continue to project the power of colonial gain and corporate
indemnity?”
--- End Quote ---
---
Jamaica joins in!
www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/07/minister-seeks-return-of-priceless-artefacts-from-british-museum
--- Quote ---
> A Jamaican government minister has demanded that the British
Museum repatriates objects in its collection taken when the
island was a colony.
>
> The culture minister, Olivia Grange, wants the museum to
return artefacts including a 500-year-old carved wooden figure
thought to represent Boiyanel, a rain god; and a carved figure
of a bird-man spirit found in a cave in 1792.
>
> The demand adds to a growing debate over whether institutions
such as the British Museum should hold on to objects culturally
significant to their country of origin.
>
> Grange made her demands in the Jamaican parliament last week.
The Jamaica Gleaner reported her as saying the artefacts were
taken during early archeological digs when the island was still
a British colony. She said the pieces were made by the Taíno,
the indigenous people of the Caribbean encountered by the
15th-century western explorers.
>
> “They are not even on display,” Grange said. “They are
priceless, they are significant to the story of Jamaica and they
belong to the people of Jamaica.”
> ...
> The issue of repatriating objects is one of the most pressing
debates in the museum world and was given extra impetus by a
report commissioned by the French president, Emmanuel Macron,
published in late 2018.
>
> The report by Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy recommended
full restitution of objects and artworks taken without consent
from their countries of origin.
>
> As well as Jamaica’s request, Greece wants the British Museum
to return the Parthenon Marbles and Ethiopia wants objects taken
during the Battle of Maqdala. Talks are ongoing for some of the
spectacular Benin Bronzes to be loaned to a new cultural hub in
Benin City, Nigeria.
--- End Quote ---
---
Positivity:
www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/11/sadiq-khan-backs-british-slavery-museum-to-challenge-racism
--- Quote ---
> Sadiq Khan has endorsed proposals for a British slavery museum
in London as a way of combating modern-day racism.
> ...
> “Until and unless Britain comes to terms with this history it
will be impossible to understand much less eradicate the views
that continue to justify racial inequalities today.
>
> “It is unacceptable that the capital city of a nation that
built a global empire and its wealth in large part as a result
of its role in the slave trade has no significant museum or
monument marking the role that London and Britain played in
these historic atrocities.”
>
> London was one of the three most important British ports in
the slave trade, along with Bristol and Liverpool – home to the
International Slavery Museum – which all became extreme wealthy
as a result. At the same time the British economy was heavily
dependent on Caribbean sugar, grown on slave plantations in its
colonies.
> ...
> Anti-racism activists have long complained the discourse
around the British slave trade has been dominated by the
nation’s role in its abolition, particularly that of William
Wilberforce, rather than its role in atrocities spanning more
than 200 years.
> ...
> David Olusoga, historian and presenter of the BBC Two
documentary, Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners, endorsed the
proposed museum. He said: “The impact of the slave trade and
enslavement is already stamped onto the fabric of London, but in
ways we have learnt not to notice.
>
> “Britain played a central role in the Atlantic slave trade and
the fortunes built on the back of slavery flowed back to
Britain. A new museum, in the heart of the city, would help us
to acknowledge a history that for the most part is hidden in
plain sight.”
--- End Quote ---
---
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/03/greece-has-acknowledge-british-museum-ownership-wants-loan-elgin/
--- Quote ---
> A Greek request to borrow the Elgin Marbles from the British
Museum would only be considered if Greece acknowledges British
ownership of the sculptures, the museum said on Tuesday.
> ...
> “A pre-condition for any loan is the acceptance of the lending
institution’s ownership,” a British Museum spokesperson told The
Telegraph.
>
> “We feel we have legal title to the sculptures that are in the
British Museum collection.
>
> “No museum or gallery in the world would loan objects unless
the other institution that was borrowing them accepted
ownership. There are conditions. They are not specific to the
Marbles - they are a basic condition of all loans, not just for
us but for all museums."
>
> Mr Mitsotakis, who was elected as head of a centre-Right
government in July, said at the weekend that he would be
prepared to loan the British Museum artefacts that have never
left Greece, in return for the loan of the friezes, known to
Greeks as the Parthenon Marbles.
>
> He said he would put the proposal to Boris Johnson.
>
> But the idea was criticised on Tuesday as “naïve” by Alexis
Tsipras, his predecessor as prime minister.
>
> Mr Tsipras, now in opposition, said that Mr Mitsotakis’ “naïve
initiative allows the British Museum to appear as the rightful
owner” of the sculptures, which have been contested by London
and Athens for two centuries.
>
> Rather than asking for a loan, the government “should ask for
the permanent return of the Parthenon Marbles…with the support
of all of us,” Mr Tsipras, the leader of the centre-Left Syriza
party, wrote on Facebook.
--- End Quote ---
I agree with Tsipras.
---
www.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2019/12/13/should-the-british-museum-return-its-egyptian-collection
--- Quote ---
> Culturally significant items from hundreds of communities
around the world today line the shelves of the British Museum,
the most visible legacy of a brutal colonial past showcased by
the display of foreign heritage as trophies in a collection.
>
> The British Museum is far from alone in this, but it is the
best known such collection in Britain, and arguably in the
Western world. It contains over eight million objects, of which
some 80,000 (1 percent) are on permanent display.
> ...
> The British Museum was founded in 1753 and opened to the
public in 1759. There were already a small number of Egyptian
antiquities in the collection then, and that has since grown to
hold more than 50,000 objects.
>
> The dates of acquisition were available for around 38,000
objects (70 percent of the collection), and give very useful
overview on the growth of the Egyptian collection.
>
> The vast majority of Egyptian antiquities that arrived in the
Museum came when Egypt was a British colony from 1882 to 1956,
which is when more than a third of the items were registered.
>
> Apart from the obvious inference that European agents stole
the items they fancied (like they did in India, Ethiopia, and in
most other colonised countries), it reflects the growing
interest in exploring Egypt.
>
> Hundreds of archaeologists, explorers and adventurers from
across Europe travelled to Egypt during this period, and new
discoveries were carted back home to either be studied, sold, or
to form part of their own collections.
>
> The greatest number of acquisitions were made in the first
decade of the 20th century, when 7,406 objects were acquired by
the British Museum between 1900 and 1910.
>
> In 1904, 2,160 items were received alone, which was the
largest acquisition of Egyptian objects.
> ...
> Colonisers, and especially the British, have a history of
picking up anything they thought was valuable, like the ring and
sword of Tipu Sultan from India or the Parthenon friezes from
Greece. While not explicitly stated, it is hard to believe that
the majority of these items weren't stolen, or at least taken
without prior permission of any authority.
>
> It is important to remember that the British Museum was
founded during a time of colonisation, when the colonisers
undoubtedly looted and pillaged indigenous societies.
> ...
> The repatriation debate is in many ways a microcosm of the
power dynamics between the colonised world and the colonisers,
one where the global north has rarely taken responsibility for
its actions that destroyed the lives of millions around the
world.
>
> Countries that were ravaged by colonisation have begun
understanding the significance of the heritage they have lost,
and are asking for it to be returned to its geographical
homeland.
>
> After destroying the lives and breaking the economies of
places like Egypt, the least the UK and other former colonisers
can do to atone for their deeds is to have this conversation,
decolonise their collections and return stolen property.
--- End Quote ---
[img]
HTML https://english.alaraby.co.uk/file/Get/cac39f73-3b1d-4853-ae23-48973305b9e7[/img]
#Post#: 573--------------------------------------------------
Re: Museum decolonization
DIR By: 90sRetroFan
Date: July 29, 2020, 2:15 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Some success:
HTML https://news.artnet.com/art-world/penn-university-museum-working-repatriate-skulls-enslaved-peoples-collection-1897840
--- Quote ---
> The Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania is putting
in storage a collection of more than 1,000 skulls, including
some that belonged to enslaved peoples, following an outcry from
students.
>
> The crania, which were held in a private classroom, belonged
to the collection of Samuel George Morton, a 19th-century
Philadelphia-based physician known for his “broadly white
supremacist” views, according to the institution.
> ...
> A prominent member of the Philadelphia medical community
during his life, Morton’s work has since been largely
discredited by scientists for its baseless assumptions and poor
documentation. He used his research to show that “Europeans,
especially those of German and English ancestry, were
intellectually, morally, and physically superior to all other
races,” the museum’s website states.
>
> Calls for the museum to restitute or rebury the skulls grew in
the wake of the murder of George Floyd, as art institutions
across the country and around the world have been pushed to
reckon with systemic racism and the legacy of colonialism.
>
> “We recognize that this museum was built on colonialism and
racist narratives,” the institution said a separate statement
following Floyd’s death. “We are working to change these
narratives and the institutional biases that accompany them.
Racism has no place in our museum. We must do more.”
--- End Quote ---
#Post#: 1540--------------------------------------------------
Re: Museum decolonization
DIR By: 90sRetroFan
Date: October 14, 2020, 11:29 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
How much longer will we continue the moral absurdity of begging
the thieves to lend to us our own property that they stole from
us?
HTML https://www.yahoo.com/news/mexico-asks-austria-loan-precious-194100945.html
--- Quote ---
> MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
on Tuesday pressed Austria to loan Mexico a bejeweled feather
headdress considered one of the country's most important
pre-Hispanic artifacts for display in an exhibition next year.
>
> Lopez Obrador wants to celebrate Mexico's Aztec past in 2021
to mark the 500th anniversary of the fall of Aztec capital
Tenochtitlan to conquistador Hernan Cortes, an event which
ushered in three centuries of Spanish domination.
>
> The leftist president, who has asked European powers to
apologize for colonial-era abuses in Mexico, urged Austria to
lend the delicate, brightly-colored headdress said to have been
worn by Aztec emperor Moctezuma before he was toppled by Cortes.
>
> "The Austrians have completely taken control of the
headdress," he told a news conference.
>
> Likening it to a "mission impossible", Lopez Obrador asked his
wife Beatriz Gutierrez to appeal to Austria on a visit to Vienna
during a European tour where she has made loan requests for
various artifacts his government wants to exhibit.
>
> "Next year will be dedicated to this because the colonialists
have narrated history at their convenience," Lopez Obrador said.
"It's always the same, those who conquer or invade have to
justify their meddling, stealing and atrocities with the aid of
their supposed superiority."
>
> Spanish forces largely destroyed Tenochtitlan after a siege in
1521, building Mexico City on the ruins.
>
> The famous headdress is nearly a yard (meter) wide and made
from more than 450 elegant, vivid green feathers of the quetzal
bird mounted in a jewel and gold encrusted crown.
>
> It is believed to have arrived in Europe in the 16th century,
and according to Vienna's Museum of Ethnology, which houses the
headdress, it later fell into the hands of Austria's Archduke
Ferdinand of Tyrol.
>
> Over the years, it has been subject to repeated Mexican
requests for its return.
>
> Vienna's Museum of Ethnology did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
--- End Quote ---
Our duty is not merely to take back what is ours, but more
importantly to execute the thieves. How long must we wait before
mainstream politicians are willing to to say this?
#Post#: 1772--------------------------------------------------
Re: Museum decolonization
DIR By: guest5
Date: October 25, 2020, 3:57 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
African man tries taking back ‘stolen’ artifacts from French
museum
--- Quote ---
> An African man is seen trying to take back ‘stolen’ artifacts
from the French Louvre museum.
--- End Quote ---
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh4RcAvV6so
#Post#: 1779--------------------------------------------------
Re: Museum decolonization
DIR By: guest5
Date: October 25, 2020, 5:11 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
The Problem with Museums
--- Quote ---
> Are museum collections ethical? How did these institutions end
up with their vast array of artifacts and remains from every
corner of the globe? Well, chances are there was some definite
shadiness involved. Today, Danielle examines this complicated
debate and looks closely at the cases of Saartjie Baartman and
Chang and Eng Bunker. What do you think? Should objects be
repatriated, left on display, or something in between?
--- End Quote ---
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av_3tGceTvs
#Post#: 1938--------------------------------------------------
Re: Museum decolonization
DIR By: guest5
Date: November 1, 2020, 10:15 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Africa's looted art | DW Documentary
--- Quote ---
> Africa’s colonial overlords brutally stripped it of countless
cultural treasures. Now, the fate of these items is being hotly
debated in Europe and Africa as well. Some say the pieces should
be returned, while others have reservations.
>
> European museums proudly present art and cultural artifacts
from all over the world. But until recently, many of them have
never considered their own complicity in the brutal ways in
which the pieces were acquired. Only slowly are they starting to
include the people to whose ancestors these artifacts once
belonged in their decisions, although European colonial
overlords pillaged and looted them in the first place.
>
> The issue of restitution is taking on a new urgency in
Germany, last but not least because of the controversy
surrounding Berlin's Humboldt Forum, which is home to
non-European collections. It's estimated that more than 1.5
million artifacts from all around the world are held in storage
at Germany's ethnological museums. The Linden Museum in
Stuttgart alone holds 60 thousand pieces from Africa. How many
of them were stolen? And how do museums address the fact that
their colonialist collectors had blood on their hands?
>
> This documentary takes an African perspective on some
examples, including valuable bronzes from Nigeria, an ornamental
prow of a boat from Cameroon, and what is known as the Witbooi
Bible from Namibia.
>
> What do the people in the African countries where the pieces
originated think about all this? What are the views of
researchers, museum directors, artists and curators? What
emotions arise when the frequently painful past is stirred up
and examined? And how significant is the issue in the context of
problems such as poverty, hunger and corruption in former
colonies?
--- End Quote ---
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RXlVr_15JY
#Post#: 1993--------------------------------------------------
Re: Museum decolonization
DIR By: guest5
Date: November 5, 2020, 12:06 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Austrian museum says Moctezuma's headdress 'cannot be moved'
--- Quote ---
> The curator at Vienna's #Weltmuseum where a feather headdress
said to have been worn by Aztec Emperor Moctezuma is displayed
says that the piece "cannot be moved" as it is "too fragile"
after Mexico's president tasked his wife with the mission of
persuading #Austria to return the pre-Hispanic relic. #Mexico
>
--- End Quote ---
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkqmwOOs9gc
How is the headdress more fragile now than it was when it was
first shipped to Austria?
#Post#: 1998--------------------------------------------------
Re: Museum decolonization
DIR By: 90sRetroFan
Date: November 5, 2020, 10:22 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Since they can't move the headdress, they should declare the
land on which the museum stands to be a territory of Mexico.
#Post#: 3051--------------------------------------------------
Re: Museum decolonization
DIR By: 90sRetroFan
Date: December 29, 2020, 11:06 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Here is an activist worth praise:
HTML https://news.artnet.com/art-world/mwazulu-diyabanza-louvre-sentenced-1932638
--- Quote ---
> Restitution Activist Mwazulu Diyabanza Must Pay the Louvre
€5,000 for Taking an Artwork From a Display Case
>
> Diyabanza has undertaken similar actions at museums across
Europe.
>
> The Congolese restitution activist Mwazulu Diyabanza has been
sentenced to a fine and a deferred prison term in Paris for
removing an object from a display case at the Louvre in what he
called a political action to cast light on restitution issues.
>
> Diyabanza tells Artnet News he must pay the Louvre €5,000 for
having “tarnished its image because my action had an
international and world-media echo.” He says he will appeal the
verdict.
>
> Diyabanza has undertaken similar actions at museums across
Europe, targeting ethnographic collections taken from former
colonies. His acts, he says, cannot be considered theft because
the objects are already stolen property.
>
> He has faced charges for acts this year at the Museum of
African, Oceanic, and Amerindian Arts in Marseille and the Musée
du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris.
>
> He was acquitted by a Marseille court in November and ordered
to pay a fine of €1,000 for his action at the Quai Branly
Museum.
>
> In his action at the Louvre on October 22, which was filmed
and posted to Facebook, Diyabanza lifted a sculpture from its
mount shortly before guards intervened. He was immediately
arrested at the museum and jailed as he awaited trial.
>
> The piece, a late 18th-century guardian spirit figure from the
island of Florès in Eastern Indonesia, was on loan from the
Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac and was not damaged in the
incident. As a part of his sentencing, he must also pay €2,000
to the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac.
>
> The Louvre declined to comment on the verdict. The Paris
Tribunal, which oversaw the verdict, did not respond to requests
for comment.
>
> In a curiously timed sequence of events, yesterday, the French
government managed to push through an unprecedented bill that
would see the full restitution of 27 objects to its source
countries by the end of 2021. The French senate tried to block
the bill before it was forced through by the National Assembly.
>
> Diyabanza tells Artnet News that the bill is “a sleepy and
dilatory political measure” and “an insult and a provocation.”
>
> He says he is determined to see “that our heritage may be
returned to us unconditionally.”
--- End Quote ---
I say the fines should be paid by French taxpayers. Then maybe
they will agree that the items should be returned ASAP.
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