Name: The Brutish Museums
ISBN: 9780745346229

Dan Hicks

The book that changed the conversation on the contemporary museum

The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution

The Brutish Museums

Walk into any European 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 brass plaques and carved ivory tusks 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 story of the Benin Bronzes sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums. In The Brutish Museums, Dan Hicks makes a powerful case for the urgent return of such objects, as part of a wider project of addressing the outstanding debt of colonialism.

jenn kause

As someone who is researching the repatriation of museum artifacts, this book could not have come out at a better time. I know how difficult it is to explain the complicated concepts of ownership and "culture war" on museums, but this book plainly explains the violence behind colonialist looting and the importance of these artifacts to their people. 
It's an amazing book to think about when you visit museums, what stories are they telling? Whose stories are they telling? Where do these objects actually come from, and how?

The Brutish Museums The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution

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