The Brutish Museums

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 collections.The Brutish Museums sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums. Since its first publication, museums across the western world have begun to return their Bronzes to Nigeria, heralding a new era in the way we understand the collections of empire we once took for granted.

Product details

• Authors: Dan Hicks, Hicks Dan
• Publisher: Pluto
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 20.10.2021
• EAN: 9780745346229
• ISBN: 978-0-7453-4622-9
• No. of pages: 368
• Dimensions: 132 mm x 200 mm x 30 mm
• Subjects: Education and learning > Teaching preparation > Vocational needs; Humanities, art, music > Art > Antiques; Conservation, restoration & care of artworks, Africa, ART / Museum Studies, ART / Art & Politics, HISTORY / Africa / West, ART / African, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Museum Administration & Museology, Colonialism & imperialism, Archaeology, Colonialism and imperialism, African History, West Africa, Museology & heritage studies, Museology and heritage studies, TRUE CRIME / Historical, African history: pre-colonial period, Conservation, restoration and care of artworks