Activists demand the repatriation of artefacts from British museums

Have they lost their marbles? Left-wing activists demand the repatriation of priceless artefacts from British museums…even if some countries don’t want them back!

  • Activists have called for colonial artefacts in British museums to be sent back
  • More objects are being drawn into the row over ‘repatriation’ to former colonies 
  • They include the British Museum’s Elgin Marbles, taken from Greece, and a four-ton Easter Island statue held in the British Museum

They are priceless artefacts from across the globe that have long been carefully preserved at Britain’s great museums.

But now there is a growing campaign by Left-wing activists for items of ‘stolen loot’ to be returned to their original homes – despite the fact that some countries do not want the relics back.

Treasures such as the British Museum’s Elgin Marbles – taken from the Parthenon in Athens 200 years ago – have long been claimed by Greece, but more objects are being drawn into the row.

Taken from Easter Island in 1868, the 1,000-year-old Hoa Hakananai’a sacred statue was given to the British Museum by Queen Victoria. Easter Island’s governor and the government of Chile now want it back

Hundreds of bronzes – including this brass plaque of the king and attendants, above,– were taken from what is now Nigeria by a British expedition in 1897. The BBC’s Civilisations presenter David Olusoga says holding them in British museums is a ‘very clear case of theft’

Last month, a delegation from Chile demanded the return of a four-ton Easter Island statue held at the British Museum. And last week at the same museum, protesters called for the repatriation of indigenous artefacts to Australia.

Meanwhile, Emmanuel Macron has urged that thousands of French museum exhibits be sent back to Africa – prompting Labour Shadow Minister Diane Abbott to insist that the UK should do the same.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has told a Greek newspaper that under his government the Elgin Marbles would be returned to Athens, along with other treasures to their country of origin.

The British Museum’s Elgin Marbles, ancient Parthenon sculptures brought to Britain by Lord Elgin in the early 19th Century. Jeremy Corbyn has said he would return them from the British Museum to Greece

The giant ground sloth was named after Charles Darwin, who discovered the remains of the extinct species in a cave. Now Chile’s government is demanding the return from the Natural History Museum of the fossil, held by David Attenborough, above, in 2009

The V&A in London and the Natural History Museum are also facing demands that could empty their shelves.

But even in the countries from which artefacts have been taken, there are those who say the treasures are best left in Britain.

A caravan of elephants and mules was needed for the British to cart away treasures – including this gold crown from Ethiopia – after the defeat of Abyssinia at the battle of Maqdala in 1868. Activists claim the V&A display is a ‘criminal endeavour’

Discovered by Napoleon’s army but then taken by Britain, this stone slab of text was vital in decoding ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Now Egypt’s government want it for Cairo’s new Grand Egyptian Museum

Last week the mayor of Easter Island said the British Museum is a better home for the disputed statue because his people are struggling to preserve the hundreds of others they have there.

And in Nigeria, Iheanyi Onwuegbucha, the curator of the Lagos Centre for Contemporary Art, said: ‘Nigeria is not ready to receive anything. We have rundown, leaking museums and insect-infested storage facilities.’

Nevertheless, the campaign continues to grow. In a recent TV discussion, writer Afua Hirsch – author of the bestseller Brit(ish): On Race, Identity And Belonging – said: ‘Isn’t it amazing that in 2018 things looted by imperialist Brits are still being shown off in our museums and galleries?’ 

Pointing to ‘looted’ items from Greece, Ghana, Ethiopia and the Solomon Islands, she said: ‘This should not be a subject for debate. Where is the moral dilemma in returning stolen property to its rightful owners?’

Ligali, a London-based group of ‘revolutionary’ pan-African activists, has demanded the V&A return the priceless Maqdala treasures that it claims were ‘stolen’ from Ethiopia by the British in 1868. 

On the organisation’s website, its leader, British-Nigerian activist Toyin Agbetu – who got within a few feet of the Queen when he gatecrashed a 2007 commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade at Westminster Abbey – has accused the V&A and other UK institutions of being involved in a ‘criminal endeavour’.

Under the heading ‘Decolonise the museums’, he wrote: ‘Even if we put the moral issues of theft, racism and gross cultural misappropriation to one side, any institution that continues to exhibit stolen ethnographic items is abusing its audiences by making them enabling participants of a criminal endeavour.’


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Historian David Olusoga, who presented the BBC series Civilisations, has said that the presence of the Benin Bronzes from Nigeria in the British Museum is ‘a very clear case of theft’. He has also urged the return of the Elgin Marbles.

But Arts Minister Michael Ellis is unconvinced.

In a recent TV discussion, writer Afua Hirsch – author of the bestseller Brit(ish): On Race, Identity And Belonging – said: ‘Isn’t it amazing that in 2018 things looted by imperialist Brits are still being shown off in our museums and galleries?’

He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I think the UK’s museums have made a strong argument that they are the best place for the artefacts. Our national museums do an outstanding job in highlighting individual cultures within a global context and present objects from across the world alongside the stories behind them.’

Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum, added: ‘The spirit of the British Museum and its statutes and the laws of the country do not provide for the return of these objects.

‘The trustees hold these collections in trust for the public. It’s a global audience.’

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