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Monday, November 16, 2009 |
The history of the bust of Nefertiti shows very clearly how hollow it can sound when Germans and other Europeans refer to legal principles in relation to the Third World Gert von Paczensky and Herbert Ganslymayr httpimgmodernghanacomimagescontentnefertitijpgNefertiti Egypt now in Neues Museum Berlin G ... Read more |
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Friday, October 23, 2009 |
Two robbers breaking into a museum devastating looting and burning leaving laughing handinhand with their bags full of treasures one of the robbers is called France and the other Britain Victor Hugo China has announced its intention of sending groups of researchers to various museums in the West especially France Britain and Uni ... Read more |
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009 |
We may not all agree with Zahi Hawass in many aspects of restitution but we cannot deny that the energetic Egyptian cultural activist has a perfect sense of timing and is in many ways a very sophisticated strategist that many countries would be wellserved to possessHe first requested from the French Egyptian artefacts for which the French w ... Read more |
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Friday, October 16, 2009 |
In an article entitled Egypt asks British Museum for the Rosetta Stone after Louvre victory the British Daily Telegraph reports that soon after the Louvre has agreed to return the stolen frescoes Zahi Hawass the dynamic SecretaryGeneral of the Supreme Council of Antiquities has asked the British Museum for a loan of the Rosetta Stone The Teleg ... Read more |
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009 |
The exhibition Tarzan ou Rousseau chez les Waziri presented at the Musée du Quai Branly in September seemed to me to be portraying a very dangerous and offensive tendency in Western culture namely the tradition of ridiculing trivializing and distorting the image or the perception of nonEuropean peoples especially Africans and thei ... Read more |
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Sunday, October 11, 2009 |
According to press reports France has agreed to return the the five ancient Egyptian frescos that Zahi Hawass claimed had been stolen from Egypt even though the French asserted they had bought them in good faithhttpnewsbbccouk httpwwwgooglecomThe question now is whether this is the end of a story or the beginning o ... Read more |
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Thursday, October 08, 2009 |
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Whether you like Zahi Hawass or not there is no denying that the dynamic SecretaryGeneral of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities is a serious man wholly dedicated to his work and determined to restore to Egypt the various cultural artefacts which were stolen in the heyday of Western imperialism and in the last decades He has made various ... Read more |
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Wednesday, October 07, 2009 |
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Whether you like Zahi Hawass or not there is no denying that the dynamic SecretaryGeneral of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities is a serious man wholly dedicated to his work and determined to restore to Egypt the various cultural artefacts which were stolen in the heydays of Western imperialism and in the last decades He has made variou ... Read more |
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Thursday, October 01, 2009 |
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It is now five months since the issue of looted African terracotta was raised in connection with the exhibition entitled African Terra Cotta a Millenary Heritage at the BarbierMueller Museum Geneva and brought to the attention of all concerned A group of renowned scholars alleged that many of the objects on display had been looted from ... Read more |
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Tuesday, September 29, 2009 |
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Those who have been following discussions on questions of restitution and preservation of cultural objects know the high esteem in which the International Council of Museums ICOM is held by many Most of us believe that this nongovernmental organization has rendered extremely useful service to the world of museums by its activities and stand ... Read more |
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009 |
Corruption like tango requires two partnersA seminal study by Peju Layiwola dealt with the question of the cultural memory of a people whose development has been brutally interrupted and their cultural objects seized by a foreign invader In the specific case of Benin the British seized more than artefacts during their nefa ... Read more |
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Sunday, August 09, 2009 |
It appears legitimate to question whether the directors of universal museums ever learn from experience When we read the books and articles of James Cuno Director of the Art Institute of Chicago Neal MacGregor Director of the British Museum and Philippe de Montebello former Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York we cannot esc ... Read more |
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Tuesday, July 28, 2009 |
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It seems there is nobody in the whole of Great Britain who can persuade the Director of the British Museum Neil MacGregor to refrain from making atrocious statements about cultural matters especially about cultural objects of others which have been looted or removed under dubious circumstance and brought to the British Museum Apart from his equ ... Read more |
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Sunday, July 05, 2009 |
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Sometimes certain acts occur which make us believe that there is still chance for humankind and that not all persons have allowed themselves to be swept by greed and thirst for power over othersThe report about the return by Seattle Art Museum SAM to Australian Aborigines of a ceremonial object without being requested by the owners may ap ... Read more |
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009 |
A major exhibition on Ife art Dynasty and Divinity Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria opened on June at the Fundación Marcelino Botin Santander Spain and will move from there to the Museum for Africa Art New York United States and later to the British Museum London United Kingdom The exhibition however will not be shown in Nigeria or in ... Read more |
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Friday, May 22, 2009 |
The looting of archaeological items and the destruction of archaeological sites in Africa are a cause of irreparable damage to African history and hence to the history of humankind Whole sections of our history have been wiped out and can never be reconstituted These objects cannot be understood once they have been removed from their archaeologi ... Read more |
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Tuesday, May 12, 2009 |
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I find the proposal to apply principles developed in child custody cases to disputes regarding the ownership of looted artefacts very interesting but also problematic and in the end not feasible To compare cultural artefacts with children under any circumstances is itself very disputable Artworks cannot be compared to children and hence ... Read more |
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Wednesday, April 22, 2009 |
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The restitution of those cultural objects which our museums and collections directly or indirectly possess thanks to the colonial system and are now being demanded must also not be postponed with cheap arguments and tricksGert v Paczensky and Herbert Ganslmayr Nofretete will nach Hause I CUNO SETS THE TONEWhose Culture T ... Read more |
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Sunday, April 19, 2009 |
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Norman Rosenthal suggested sometime ago that there should be an end to claims for restitution of NaziLooted art and was rightly criticised by so many others httpwwwlootedartcom Now he has given an interview in Der Spiegel in which he restates his case httpwwwspiegelcom His reasoning is so strange that one can hard ... Read more |
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Sunday, April 05, 2009 |
In an interview reproduced below from the PUNCH the DirectorGeneral of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments Dr Joe Eboreima gives his views of the question of the restitution of stolenlooted Nigerian artefacts especially the Benin Bronzes which the British looted in their infamous invasion of Benin in The National Commiss ... Read more |
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Tuesday, March 17, 2009 |
The latest statements by the Director of the Art Institute of Chicago in an interview entitled Treaty on antiquities hinders access for museums cannot be simply ignored or dismissed After all James Cuno heads one of the leading museums in the West and is from an important city with a long established intellectual tradition fine Law Schools ... Read more |
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Saturday, March 14, 2009 |
Those who saw the exhibition Benin Kings and Rituals Court Arts from Nigeria would be familiar with the name and writings of Peju Layiwola She contributed a piece The Benin Massacre Memories and Experience to the excellent catalogue of the exhibition edited by Barbara Plankensteiner Museum of Ethnology Vienna In the interview repr ... Read more |
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Thursday, March 12, 2009 |
I enjoyed reading the article entitled Yours Mine Ours Taking the Culture out of Cultural Property in Antiquities Watch and I have sympathy for some of the views expressed there It is an interesting article and offers food for thought However when I started to reflect on a few of the ideas expressed therein many difficulties appeared ... Read more |
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Thursday, February 26, 2009 |
In looking up the background surrounding the proposed auction by Christies I came across some materials which I found very interesting and would like to share with readers One of them was the statement attributed to Charles Gordon British soldier the other by the French writer Victor Hugo There is also the offer to return the objects in ret ... Read more |
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Sunday, February 22, 2009 |
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When I listened to the recent lecture by Neil MacGregor Director British Museum on the th anniversary of the museum I was at least at the beginning very relieved I thought finally we have the director of the museum an avid apostle of the universal museum who was recently made a saint by the British press admitting openly ... Read more |
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Monday, February 09, 2009 |
The recent article by JamesCuno Wheredothegreattreasuresofancientartbelong clearly demonstrates his unwillingness to take into account valid criticisms of his viewpoints This leads him to make statements which will no doubt be subject to further comments These calls to return artefacts are an effort to redress historical im ... Read more |
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Saturday, January 24, 2009 |
Alastair Bruce may have a filial duty in respect of the ParthenonElgin Marbles and no one can criticise him for that httpsharonwaxman After all we are not responsible for the deeds or misdeeds of our ancestors What he should really not expect from the rest of us is to buy the argument that his Great Great Great Grandfather Lord Elgin wa ... Read more |
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Monday, January 19, 2009 |
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I listened with great interest to the lecture by Thomas Gaehtgens on Challenging the Encyclopedic Museum Berlins Museum Island at the Art Institute of ChicagoHis performance was quite remarkable Even though he mentioned that the Russians had taken away artworks from Germany and that this constituted a problem between the two countries he ... Read more |
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Tuesday, January 13, 2009 |
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The public interest must surely be in upholding the rule of law rather than promoting an international freeforall through the unrestricted circulation of tainted works of art Do we really wish to educate our children to have no respect for history legality and ethical values by providing museums with the opportunity freely to exhibit stolen p ... Read more |
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Friday, January 09, 2009 |
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I enjoyed reading most of what Britt Peterson wrote in Tales from the Vitrine Battles Over Stolen Antiquities in The Nation and strongly recommend to all who care about the debate on restitution of stolenlooted artefacts from Africa and elsewhere that are now in Western museums to adopt and ponder over Petersons statementSubstitute Iraq ... Read more |
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Sunday, January 04, 2009 |
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The choice of a personality as Briton of the year is clearly a matter for British nationalists and a nonBriton has no business examining the basis of such a choice It is up to the British to indulge in such a game if they consider it worthwhile However when a leading British newspaper The Times making such a designation for the first time w ... Read more |
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Monday, December 22, 2008 |
I have just seen a video report of CNN on Zahi Hawass the famous Egyptian archaeologist as interviewed and reported by CNNs Ben Wedeman Once you look carefully and ponder on the activities and statements by Hawass you simply have to conclude that the man is totally dedicated and committed to his work His enthusiasm for his work for his missi ... Read more |
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Monday, December 15, 2008 |
The restitution of those cultural objects which our museums and collections directly or indirectly possess thanks to the colonial system and are now being demanded must also not be postponed with cheap arguments and tricksGert v Paczensky and Herbert Ganslmayr Nofretete will nach Hause We have often heard from those holdin ... Read more |
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Friday, December 05, 2008 |
Crown of Tewodros II Ethiopia the Victoria and Albert Museum London United Kingdom Looted during the invasion of Magdala in by a British Punitive Expedition army The crown is labled at the Victoria and Albert as the Crown of the Archbishop Abune Selam With typical colonialist and imperialist arrogance this karat gold crown was de ... Read more |
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Tuesday, December 02, 2008 |
In his review of Cunos Who owns Antiquities wwwsavingantiquitiesorg Lord Renfrew sees as a weakness in Cunos argument a confusion between antiquities looted in recent times and plunder by imperial powers and declaresBut the issues in the two cases modern clandestine looting versus colonial or imperial appropriation mai ... Read more |
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Sunday, November 09, 2008 |
The question that many observers must be asking themselves these days is when will Britain finally join the movement for restitution and abandon anachronistic and imperialist views which may have been acceptable in the th century but are clearly not acceptable in our days We do not believe that Great Britain would lose any of its greatness if it ... Read more |
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Saturday, November 08, 2008 |
How many such ivory horns did the British steal in As readers may know many Africans are very suspicious of collaboration with museums and institutions that have shown by their history and practice that they do not care much for the interest and feelings of Nigerians and Africans generally In the article below by Tajudeen Sowole a Niger ... Read more |
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008 |
Who knows how great his inspiration might have been on Nigerian music had he stayed in Benin rather than be hidden in the British MuseumThe lack of reaction from Western holders of Benin artefacts to the several callsby Nigerians for restitution is causing anger in many circles The report below deals with the renewed calls by the Beni ... Read more |
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Monday, October 20, 2008 |
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It looks as if Britain is finally coming to the conclusion that stolenlooted cultural objects should be returned to their rightful owners According to a report in the Telegraph new legislation is on the way to allow the British Museum and other national museums to return artworks that were stolenlooted by the Nazis The legislation will be spec ... Read more |
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Thursday, October 16, 2008 |
KaNefer Nefer Mask Saqqara Egypt now in StLouis Art Museum SLAM USAhttppaulbarfordblogspotcomkanefernefermummymaskrecaphtmlEgypt has requested the return of this mask since We may not all agree with Zahi Hawasshttpwwwguardiansnethawass in his style and manner ... Read more |
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Monday, October 13, 2008 |
Hardly a day passes by without some call for the return of the stolen cultural objects of Benin In the whole of Africa people are incensed when they hear about the unjustified invasion of Benin by the British in and above all the looting and burning of Benin City Most Africans cannot believe that the Europeans who preached Christian moralit ... Read more |
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Friday, October 03, 2008 |
Captured by the British Punitive Expedition and sold into German Captivity in The following are some of the essential points about the Benin bronzes that the reader must know and always bear in mind when reading about the looted cultural artefacts now in European and American museums Thousands of beautiful and fine Benin art ... Read more |
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Sunday, September 28, 2008 |
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The charge of nationalism whether outdated or au courant is frequently levelled at those seeking the repatriation of cultural treasures to those nations and communities from which they were extracted But nations have always used their own material culture as a means of constructing and expressing their national identity There is nothing implic ... Read more |
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Friday, September 26, 2008 |
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Italy has returned to Greece a piece of the Parthenon Palermo fragment which has been missing from Athens for years The fragment showing the right foot of the Greek hunting goddess Artemis and part of her robe had been in the collection of the Antonio Salinas Archaeological Museum Palermo Italy How did this fragment from the Part ... Read more |
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Tuesday, September 16, 2008 |
Probably very few countries have been so systematically and intensively deprived of their cultural objects with tremendous violence by Western European countries as Ethiopia has been First the British under Queen Victoria sent an army in to conquer the African country under Emperor Tewodros The Ethiopian ruler committed suicide in Magdala ... Read more |
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Monday, September 15, 2008 |
Plaque showing the body of a Portuguese soldier Benin The upper part of the soldier is in London British Museum and the lower part is in Vienna Museum für Völkerkunde That the two museums are not embarrassed to have the head of this soldier on one side of the British Channel whilst his feet are on the other side shows how much they care for t ... Read more |
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008 |
According to the report below Nigeria has with effect from last Friday th September a Cultural Centre Nigeria Cultural House Casa da Nigeria in Salvador da Bahia Brazil This is a historical event which will surely not go unnoticed by all those interested in African History the Transatlantic Slave Trade and AfroBrazilian Relation ... Read more |
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Saturday, September 06, 2008 |
When the American Association of Museums AAM issued on August its new rules Standards Regarding Archaeological Material and Ancient Art CultureGrrl perceiving the radical change the new rules implied asked whether the makers of the rules realized what they were saying The new AAM rules provide that Beyond the requirements of ... Read more |
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Monday, September 01, 2008 |
At a seminar on Edo Culture organized by the Edo Community in Vienna on Friday August where I spoke on the restitution of the Benin bronzes to wellinformed and enthusiastic participants the question was asked whether there was any hope of the British ever returning the Benin bronzes they stole in My answer was that even though we ar ... Read more |
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Saturday, August 23, 2008 |
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In an article entitled A Humanist Plea for Freeranging Antiquities Alan Behr a New York lawyer praises James Cunos book Who Owns Antiquity Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion but surely we must try to base our opinions on facts and also on a broader understanding of the issue we are dealing with It seems to me that Behr has ba ... Read more |
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Friday, August 22, 2008 |
With the exception of Nigeria Brazil is the country with the largest African population in the world It is therefore not only strange but also scandalous that such a country defines itself only through a Eurocentric model for the final objective of the Eurocentric ideology is the elimination of African descendants a type of subtle and hypocrit ... Read more |
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Sunday, August 17, 2008 |
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I the great general of the German troops send this letter to the Herero people All Hereros must leave this land Any Herero found within the German borders with or without a gun with or without cattle will be shot I shall no longer receive any women or children I will drive them back to their people I will shoot them This is my decisi ... Read more |
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Friday, August 15, 2008 |
This book corresponds to what I think the average visitor to an exhibition needs a short introduction to the subjectmatter with illustrations and sufficient information for the reader to understand the significance of the theme without being burdened by too many pagesBenin Royal Arts of a West African Kingdom by Kathleen Bickford Berzock ... Read more |
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Wednesday, August 13, 2008 |
There are probably few countries in the world that can boast of such an abundance of cultural treasures as Nigeria one of the richest countries in the world But Nigeria has also an enormous amount of organizational problems which are also reflected in the cultural area The constant lamentations about the weak security in many Nigerian museums of ... Read more |
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Monday, August 11, 2008 |
The striding and perhaps growling lion is surely an appropriate symbol for the power and influence of the three countries France Great Britain and Germany at the time that most of the valuable cultural objects were removed from Mesopotamia and other parts of the worldProcessional Way Detail Striding lion Babylon Irak th century BC cla ... Read more |
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Wednesday, August 06, 2008 |
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Kwame Opoku a tireless commentator on restitution issues one of whose essays recently attracted a rejoinder on Afrikanetinfo from Metropolitan Museum director Phil ... Read more |
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Wednesday, August 06, 2008 |
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Kenya has once again underlined its determination to recover the thousands of artefacts that were taken away from the country during the colonial era Under pressure now are the British Museum and the Smithsonian Institution which have a vast amount of Kenyan and other African objects US American German French British Portuguese and Dutch muse ... Read more |
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Sunday, July 27, 2008 |
We Westerners are the ones who confer the quality of art to these objects These statues should not return to Africa Jean Paul BarbierMueller Seldom have I been to an exhibition where almost everything seemed to have been so wellplanned and very carefully considered as the exhibition at the Musée JacquemartAndré Paris entitled Afri ... Read more |
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008 |
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The information below indicates that the demand for the return of the Benin artefacts which the British looted in in the infamous Punitive Exhibition of is growing This increase interest is no doubt due to the discussion on the exhibition Benin Kings and Rituals Court Arts from Nigerianow at the Art Institute of ChicagoThe stat ... Read more |
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Sunday, July 20, 2008 |
The article entitled Culture knows no political borders which is an interview with James Cuno Director of the Art Institute of Chicago by Tiffany Jenkins in the Spectator must be critically examined Many persons in the United Kingdom would te ... Read more |
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Friday, July 18, 2008 |
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The article below provides us further report on the opening of the exhibition which is now at the Art Institute of Chicago until September I was very interested to note that the Field Museum in Chicago has some Benin bronzes a fact which up to now seems to have escaped the attention of many of us who believe that the time has come fo ... Read more |
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Friday, July 18, 2008 |
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According to the report below the President of Kenya has reiterated Kenyas demand for the return of cultural objects which were stolen from the country especially under the colonial regimeIt is remarkable that nearly some fortyeight years since many African countries regained their independence they have still not recovered most of these ... Read more |
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Monday, July 14, 2008 |
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We have had within the last few days a spate of articles all praising in fulsome language the British Museum and its director Neil MacGregor One article Is the British Museum the greatest museum on earth written by Damien Whitworth appeared in the Times on July Another sycophantic article by Ben Macintyre in The Times of July ... Read more |
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Monday, July 14, 2008 |
As readers know the exhibition Benin Kings and Rituals Royal Arts from Nigeria which started in Vienna in went on to Paris and Berlin was opened in Chicago on July and will be there until September For various reasons including the fear of litigation and judicial attempts to seize some of the Benin bronzes only some ... Read more |
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Friday, July 11, 2008 |
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Ben Macintyres article Lets all have tickets to the universal museum in Timesonline July is one of those articles appearing regularly in European newspapers and Western media generally appearing to espouse an internationalism and a universalism that at first sight would appeal to many persons However on reflection one realizes th ... Read more |
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Wednesday, July 09, 2008 |
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When I read the article entitled How one cultural vision has lessons for the whole world by Tristram Hunt in the Observer July httpwwwguardiancouk I really did not know how to take it Some of his panegyric statements about the British Museum and its Director shocked me whilst I thought others must have been as it were said wit ... Read more |
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Friday, July 04, 2008 |
James Cuno Director Art Institute of Chicago has become known for his constant attacks on those he terms nationalist retentionists and who according to him pretend to be successors to ancient civilizations and inheritors of their cultural objects with which they have no real connections except that these objects happen to be within the terri ... Read more |
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Sunday, June 29, 2008 |
Although the Art Newspaper published the details of the arrangements on Friday June the contract between Abu Dhabi and France on the creation of Louvre Abu Dhabi was signed last year See Tom Flynn Getting ahead in the sand universal museum in the age of neoliberalism If you ever thought there was no money in the museum business a ... Read more |
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Thursday, June 19, 2008 |
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There has been a lot of publicity these last days for James Cunos book Who owns Antiquity Including several radio discussions on the British radio station BBC where the author presented his views and was questioned by expert participants Cuno repeated his wellknown views about antiquities belonging to all and his criticism of those he calls ... Read more |
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Sunday, June 08, 2008 |
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In order to deny States the right to control excavations on their land and to prevent them from claiming ownership of artefacts found in their countries James Cuno Director of the Art Institute of Chicago in his new book Who owns antiquity Museums and the battle over our ancient heritage goes so far as to deny any continuity between the pe ... Read more |
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Saturday, May 17, 2008 |
And I am left thinking that the Enlightenment principles on which public museums in the United States were established have perhaps contributed to the irreversible destruction of our universal or cosmopolitan cultural heritage David Gill Collecting Antiquities and Enlightenment Principles The exhibition Benin Kings and Rituals ... Read more |
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Sunday, May 11, 2008 |
Queenmother Idia BeninNigeria now in the British Museum Seized by the British during the invasion of Benin in Will she ever be liberated from the British MuseumNormally in cases of claims for stolen property or illegally detained objects it is sufficient for the owner to establish beyond reasonable doubt that he is the right ... Read more |
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Sunday, April 27, 2008 |
Universal culture can only be achieved when all cultures are able and free to make their contribution but this cannot be done when the guardians of one culture hijack the masterpieces of another culture In a recent article in a leading German newspaper Die Welt Welt On Line httpwwwweltdeweltAbschiedvomintellektuellenKolonialis ... Read more |
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Monday, April 21, 2008 |
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Reference is made to the letter from Philippe de Montebello Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York which was published in AFRIKANET on Friday April httpwwwafrikanetinfo In his letter Philippe de Montebello refers to my article entitled Is Legality still a viable concept for European and American Museum Direct ... Read more |
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Monday, April 14, 2008 |
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We have in previous articles raised the issue of copyrightin stolen African cultural objects that are now in European and American museums and the profit the museums are making by the granting of permission to use images of these objects or to film them None of these profits goes to the artists who made these objects or to their successors or co ... Read more |
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Monday, April 14, 2008 |
The restitution of those cultural objects which our museums and collections directly or indirectly possess thanks to the colonial system and are now being demanded must also not be postponed with cheap arguments and tricksGert v Paczensky and Herbert Ganslmayr Nofretete will nach Hause In a recent report on the Benin exhibi ... Read more |
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Sunday, April 06, 2008 |
For those who are hoping that the British Museum may reconsider its position on the ParthenonElgin Marbles and adopt a position closer to the views of the United Nations and UNESCO and thereby contribute towards an acceptable solution to this decadeslong dispute on the Parthenon Marbles the statement issued by the British Museum almost a year ag ... Read more |
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Thursday, April 03, 2008 |
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We are reading almost on a daily basis some comment or reply by a European or an American museum director in defence of the holding of stolen cultural objects or objects illegally exported from other countries and now in their museums However these defences seem so patently weak or unconvincing that one wonders how people in such positions can ar ... Read more |
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Tuesday, April 01, 2008 |
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It is becoming increasingly clear that many of the European museum directors are not very convinced of the soundness of the arguments they present in favour of the retention of stolen African cultural objects by their museums We have shown the illegality illegitimacy and immorality of the continued holding of thousands of African cultural objects ... Read more |
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Monday, March 24, 2008 |
I was once asked by someone who was aware of my view that African art objects in European museums should in principle be returned to Africa which of the African queens in European museums Nefertiti or Ida was the most beautiful My answer not surprising for him was that I could only really appreciate the full beauty of the ladies now kep ... Read more |
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Wednesday, March 19, 2008 |
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The exhibition BENIN YEARS OF COURTLY ART FROM NIGERIA Museum of Ethnology Berlin February May has demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt that there are no unbridgeable obstacles to presenting an exhibition which fulfils the demands of a good ethnological presentation of art works and artefacts and also takes into accou ... Read more |
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Saturday, March 01, 2008 |
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The contested human remains in Western museums were collected at a time of gross inequality of power A power that we now recognise was terribly abused at the expense of the indigenous peoples We now have the opportunity to redress that historic imbalance acknowledging that this may well entail a loss to science that will in its turn heal open fe ... Read more |
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Sunday, February 24, 2008 |
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In his interview of January with Richard Lacayo A Talk With James Cuno httpwwwelginismcom Cuno Director of the Art Institute of Chicago makes many controversial statements but I will like to comment only on a few Anthony Appiah said something wonderful in his book Cosmopolitanism He says Look we dont know ... Read more |
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Saturday, February 16, 2008 |
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It is simply amazing how Eurocentric and selfish many of the arguments of the defenders of plunder and stealing of other peoples cultural property are The opponents of restitution seem completely oblivious of the interests of countries trying to secure the return of their cultural objects that have been taken away by force or through dubious mean ... Read more |
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Friday, February 15, 2008 |
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A people who free themselves from foreign domination will be free culturally only if without complexes and without underestimating the importance of positive accretions from the oppressor and other cultures they return to the upward paths of their own culture which is nourished by the living reality of its environment and which negates both ha ... Read more |
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Thursday, February 14, 2008 |
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The general impression we got from the Benin Exhibition now in Paris until January was that on the premises of the Musée du Quai Branly the establishment of which had been seen by some as the victory of the French art establishment over the ethnologists and colonial historians the aesthetic view point prevailed over ethnological presenta ... Read more |
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Wednesday, February 13, 2008 |
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Berlin Berlin BerlinBenin bronzes burnt in BerlinBerlin boasts Benin bronzes butBenin bleeds badlyThe restitution of those cultural objects which our museums and collections directly or indirectly possess thanks to the colonial system and are now being demanded must also not be postponed with cheap arguments and tricks ... Read more |
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008 |
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I the great general of the German troops send this letter to the Herero people All Hereros must leave this land Any Herero found within the German borders with or without a gun with or without cattle will be shot I shall no longer receive any women or children I will drive them back to their people I will shoot them This is my decisi ... Read more |
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Sunday, February 10, 2008 |
Maybe because I come from a country which has not been noted for warfare and aggressive actions and does not see itself as permanently involved in wars it is somewhat difficult for me to understand the vocabulary and metaphors of war which others use as their daily vocabulary for communication on many matters including issues related to culture ... Read more |
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Friday, February 08, 2008 |
After reading a lot of books and articles on the question of restitution of cultural objects stolen or illegally exported I was gradually coming to the conclusion that the taking of cultural objects of others was mainly practised by European nations or nations of mainly European descendants I was rather uncomfortable with this conclusion since it ... Read more |
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