Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #brutishmuseums
Most recents (4)
THREAD - a quick commentary on what today's massive news of the @smithsonian committing to returning its entire Benin 1897 collection means
1/14 this announcement by the Smithsonian is another sign that we are witnessing a fundamental global shift in the ethics of museum curation
in the past a self-selected handful of the richest and most powerful institutions has sought to control, dominate and close down the debate
in the past a self-selected handful of the richest and most powerful institutions has sought to control, dominate and close down the debate
2/ but since the 1990s restitution has become a mainstream part of professional practice in the very different historical circumstances of returning Nazi loot or ancestral human remains to Indigenous people around the world.
✨ the paperback edition of #BrutishMuseums is officially published today, with a new preface and an updated list of museums holding Benin Bronzes! ✨
there are quite a few made-up words and concepts in the book, so to mark the day here are seven of them in a thread 👇
there are quite a few made-up words and concepts in the book, so to mark the day here are seven of them in a thread 👇
1/ Chronopolitics
the use of time as a mode of colonial domination, including the weaponisation of the discipline of Archaeology #BrutishMuseums
the use of time as a mode of colonial domination, including the weaponisation of the discipline of Archaeology #BrutishMuseums
2/ Necrography
An account of death and loss. A death-history. An anti-biography. When applied to material culture, an alternative to the tired idiom 'the social life of things' or 'the cultural biography of objects' #BrutishMuseums
An account of death and loss. A death-history. An anti-biography. When applied to material culture, an alternative to the tired idiom 'the social life of things' or 'the cultural biography of objects' #BrutishMuseums
@MCHammer a short thread of the five known Benin ivory hip-ornament masks—small portraits of Idia, first Iyoba (Queen Mother) of the 16th-century Benin Kingdom 👇
@MCHammer 1/ This ivory Idia mask is in the British Museum. It was looted by Sir Ralph Moor in the sacking of Benin City, and later bought by the @britishmuseum from anthropologist Charles Seligman #BrutishMuseums
@MCHammer @britishmuseum 2/ This is the ivory Idia hip-ornament mask, also looted in 1897, that is currently in the @LindenMuseum in Stuttgart, Germany (but was formerly in the @Pitt_Rivers second collection)
It's been a busy week around the publication of #TheBrutishMuseums - here's a quick summary of some of the key media coverage in case you missed some of it!
1/ On Tuesday I spoke to @AaronBastani for @novaramedia
1/ On Tuesday I spoke to @AaronBastani for @novaramedia
2/ Yesterday I published this op-ed on returning the Benin Bronzes in the Daily Telegraph telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-se…
3/ On Thursday there was also this write-up of #BrutishMuseums for Libération - "Diplomatie muséale britannique et restitution des objets d’art volés " libeafrica4.blogs.liberation.fr/2020/11/05/dip…
