Articles

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Z. S. Strother
22/01/19
Eurocentrism still sets the terms of restitution of African art
A selective view of African cultural heritage continues the colonialist paradigm
This comment was first published in the journal The Art Newspaper and later translated into German for this blog. The original post in The Art Newspaper can be found HERE. The German translation on this blog can be found HERE.
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Souad Zeineddine
08/01/19
Reversal of the gaze
Epistemic violence, epistemic reconciliation, response-able knowledge production
The reversal of the gaze – whether in anthropology or in art history –, is neither a banal nor a simple undertaking. Both the ability to reverse the gaze and the practiced reversal of the gaze are necessary conditions for the critical inquiry of the interrelatedness of contemporary power relations and the production of knowledge. […]
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Margareta von Oswald
18/12/18
The ‘Restitution Report’
First Reactions in Academia, Museums, and Politics
This review gives an overview of the first reactions to the so-called ‘restitution report’ handed in to French president Emmanuel Macron on Nov 23, 2018 by Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy[1]. The debate and reactions in politics, museums, academia, but also from the art market have been polarized and emotionally charged. Starting with first reactions […]
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Achille Mbembe
11/12/18
“The truth is that Europe has taken something from us, which it will never be able to return”*
*Translation from French by Michael Dorrity Bénédicte Savoy and Felwine Sarr have finally delivered President Emmanuel Macron with a report concerning the restitution of African objects currently held in French museums. For understandable historic reasons, Emmanuel Macron had limited the reach of the mission to previous territories over which the Republic had exercised responsibility. It […]
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Larissa Förster
06/12/18
Whoever’s Right
Remarks on the Debate about Provenance and Return from the Perspective of Social and Cultural Anthropology
by Larissa Förster Translation: Mitch Cohen In the debate about colonial provenances and the restitution of objects from German museums to formerly colonized countries there is always an elephant in the room. The elephant is the law – when we are dealing with a “context of injustice”, the question whether this is or should be […]
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Erhard Schüttpelz
28/11/18
Everything Must Go: Looting the Museum as Compensation for Looting the World
Raubkunstforschung als angewandte Wissenschaft
Preliminary Remarks on: Felwine Sarr/Bénédicte Savoy, „The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage. Toward a New Relational Ethics“ (November 2018). http://restitutionreport2018.com Marx was right, but we can delve deeper into his famous dictum from „The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte“. History does not repeat itself by alternating from tragedy to farce. Farce is the covering of […]
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Sarah FründtOliver Lueb
20/11/18
A Human Skull for Sale: Is this possible?
On Oct. 18, 2018, under a title that translates as “Someone who buys something like this must be a bit crazy”, the Süddeutsche Zeitung published an interview with the business manager of the auction house Lempertz, Prof. Henrik Hanstein. The talk, conducted by Jörg Häntzschel, addressed an auction held on Oct. 24 in Lempertz’s Brussels […]
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30/10/18
Das Kulturerbe Benins auf dem Prüfstand der Zeit
Currently, this contribution exists only in the German version, translation under way.
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Ingrid Kummels
02/10/18
Sleeping Objects
On the future of museum artefacts
Aquí leen la versión en castellano The news of the devastating fire at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro calls to mind the following aspect of museums of a similar immense size: In keeping with their claim of representing the nation and the wealth of its cultural heritage, they have amassed large quantities of […]
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Sven Schütze
25/09/18
Ambivalent Futures
On the restitution of objects and white innocence
The legacies of colonialism and imperialism are keeping the European museum scene busy. At first glance, colonial amnesia seems to be overcome and museums to pave the way for postcolonial restorative justice. A second glance, though, might reveal inconsistencies and shortcomings structuring present museum work. The current debate mainly focuses on objects being looted, exchanged, […]
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