20 July 2019

Can we decolonise the British Museum?

Despite ongoing attempts to return stolen treasures to their countries of origin, critics argue that the history of museums will always tie them to a colonial mindset.

By Ellen Peirson-Hagger

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 22: Plaques that form part of the Benin Bronzes are displayed at The British Museum on November 22, 2018 in London, England. The British Museum has agreed to loan the plaques back to a new museum in Benin City in Nigeria. The Benin Bronzes were taken from Africa by British troops in 1897. The return of a basalt Easter Island Head figure has also been requested this week by The Governor of the Easter Islands, Tarita Alarcón Rapu amid a broader call for artefacts taken during colonial rule to be restituted. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Next time you visit the British Museum and hover around the Gweagal Shield, an Aboriginal Australian object made of bark and wood sometime around the turn of the 19th century, and you might hear the words “theft”, “Captain James Cook” and “warrior Cooman”. Hang out by the Benin Bronzes and see if the terms “looting” or “punitive expedition of 1897” are sounded. Lean in close enough, and you might notice a tour guide wearing a badge with the motto, “Display it like you stole it”.

Alice Procter, an art historian studying at University College London, has been leading small groups around the British Museum, V&A, National Portrait Gallery and Tate Britain since June 2017. Her Uncomfortable Art Tours invite participants to question the provenance of objects and images, grapple with repatriation – the process by which objects are returned to their origin state at the request of its government – and think critically about Britain’s former colonial empire.