Can We Meme the British Museum Into Doing the Right Thing?

"The once and always profiteer of colonial and extractive proclivities just ... embraces PR nightmares with open arms, as if it's above it all. Its reputation as a symbol of imperial looting is so cemented that as soon as the robbers absconded with France's crown jewels, people from all over were telling the British Museum to turn out its pockets. Given the museum's storied collection of lifted artifacts, the public wonders (mostly in jest) if it's become emboldened to steal artifacts once again?"

"It's that the museum has made essentially no effort to reckon with its harm. It has spent almost 100 years repeatedly declining to repatriate the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, and maintains an ironclad grip over other contested objects in its collection, including an enormous swath of Benin Bronzes, the Rosetta Stone, and Moai from Rapa Nui (Easter Island), among a long list ofpriceless cultural, archaeological, and spiritual/animated objects."

Recent international museum heists revived conversations about stolen artifacts and provoked memes and public mockery. The British Museum holds hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of objects acquired through imperial looting, pillaging, and violence across the globe. The institution has refused repatriation requests for nearly a century, notably declining to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, and retains contested holdings such as large portions of the Benin Bronzes, the Rosetta Stone, and Moai from Rapa Nui. The museum presents opaque institutional language about 'negotiating' and 'developing relationships' while making essentially no effort to reckon with its harms.

Read at Hyperallergic