Nigeria’s looted Benin bronzes returned more than 100 years later
Al JazeeraAPR 2022
The return of these artifacts is long overdue. It is significant that Germany is making efforts to deal with its colonial past, and it is time that other Western nations follow suit. Artifacts stolen during colonial times should be repatriated to their countries of origin.
Western museums serve a nuanced purpose and should not just automatically bow to calls to return artworks acquired during a colonial past. Current discourses on decolonizing museums speak in absolutes of good and bad instead of looking at the subtle histories of empires beyond a focus on colonial violence. To decolonize museums is to decontextualize museums, and remove the multicultural histories of western nations.