The issue of items held in museums that were acquired during colonial times has come to the fore again following recent demands by the Ethiopian government for London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) to return all artefacts it holds that originated in the country.
Tristram Hunt, the director of the V&A, says the institution will explore the possibility of a long-term loan arrangement with Ethiopia over the objects, which include items taken following the Battle of Maqdala in 1868.
There are also ongoing discussions about the future of art seized during a punitive British expedition to the kingdom of Benin, now part of Nigeria, in 1897. Hundreds of these objects are now held in European museums.
The Benin Dialogue Group of European museums, which was founded in 2007, plans a permanent display of objects now held by western museums on rotating loan to Benin City in Nigeria. The group, which includes the British Museum, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge, and Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, is to meet later this year in the Netherlands.
“The partners involved in the dialogue are trying to find ways forward, with regard to ensuring a permanent presence of these collections in Benin City,” says Laura Van Broekhoven, the director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, which holds a collection of Benin bronzes, most of which are on loan. “
We are now at a point that we can have more detailed conversations regarding what needs to be put in place for that to happen.
“For ethnographic museums, I believe questions around redress and repatriation will be an important part of what we will be doing in the next decades. More and more ethnographic museums feel a responsibility for decolonising practices
and displays. That involves working collaboratively and ensuring that we better address and understand the difficult questions around the colonial past of the collections.”
Van Broekhoven says French president Emmanuel Macron’s speech in March, when he said African art can’t just exist in private collections and museums in Europe, was significant.
“For France and much of continental Europe, this has enabled an important shift,” she adds. “Germany has reacted to it, and the same is happening in the Netherlands.
Historical accuracy
“Collecting was done in a wide array of ways and it would help if we told those stories with more historical accuracy. In some very specific cases, the collecting was part of violent punitive campaigns. The Benin collections are an example of that.”
The Pitt Rivers Museum has engaged in an ethical evaluation of its displays.
“A lot of the work we’ve done in the past couple of decades has been about decolonising our practices, but much of the work has happened behind the scenes,” says Van Broekhoven. “Our challenge now is to find ways for us to translate those practices into the display, so that visitors experience the museum differently.”
There is growing interest in the idea of decolonising museums and their collections – the Museum Ethnographers Group’s conference, held in April at the Pitt Rivers Museum, was themed Opportunities and Limitations of Decolonising the Museum.
Tristram Hunt, the director of the V&A, says the institution will explore the possibility of a long-term loan arrangement with Ethiopia over the objects, which include items taken following the Battle of Maqdala in 1868.
There are also ongoing discussions about the future of art seized during a punitive British expedition to the kingdom of Benin, now part of Nigeria, in 1897. Hundreds of these objects are now held in European museums.
The Benin Dialogue Group of European museums, which was founded in 2007, plans a permanent display of objects now held by western museums on rotating loan to Benin City in Nigeria. The group, which includes the British Museum, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge, and Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, is to meet later this year in the Netherlands.
“The partners involved in the dialogue are trying to find ways forward, with regard to ensuring a permanent presence of these collections in Benin City,” says Laura Van Broekhoven, the director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, which holds a collection of Benin bronzes, most of which are on loan. “
We are now at a point that we can have more detailed conversations regarding what needs to be put in place for that to happen.
“For ethnographic museums, I believe questions around redress and repatriation will be an important part of what we will be doing in the next decades. More and more ethnographic museums feel a responsibility for decolonising practices
and displays. That involves working collaboratively and ensuring that we better address and understand the difficult questions around the colonial past of the collections.”
Van Broekhoven says French president Emmanuel Macron’s speech in March, when he said African art can’t just exist in private collections and museums in Europe, was significant.
“For France and much of continental Europe, this has enabled an important shift,” she adds. “Germany has reacted to it, and the same is happening in the Netherlands.
Historical accuracy
“Collecting was done in a wide array of ways and it would help if we told those stories with more historical accuracy. In some very specific cases, the collecting was part of violent punitive campaigns. The Benin collections are an example of that.”
The Pitt Rivers Museum has engaged in an ethical evaluation of its displays.
“A lot of the work we’ve done in the past couple of decades has been about decolonising our practices, but much of the work has happened behind the scenes,” says Van Broekhoven. “Our challenge now is to find ways for us to translate those practices into the display, so that visitors experience the museum differently.”
There is growing interest in the idea of decolonising museums and their collections – the Museum Ethnographers Group’s conference, held in April at the Pitt Rivers Museum, was themed Opportunities and Limitations of Decolonising the Museum.