Pretty sure it wasn't written by a "baying mob", but the new DCMS report on valuing heritage assets defines sculptures and plaques as — wait for it — "moveable heritage".
And, specifically, as examples of a class of heritage "that can be moved into a collection or is mobile"
the consultants missed a trick by not including fascist architect Albert Speer's theory of Ruinenwerttheorie (ruin value) here — could've gone down quite well with the Common Sense Group
on knowing the price of everything, the value of nothing, and nothing at all about heritage management
(2/34)
I had always believed what I’d been told about the Benin Bronzes. That the British punitive expedition against Benin City (today in Edo State, Nigeria) was a necessary reprisal against a bloody massacre. That there was a grim justification to the looting of the city
(3/34) in February 1897, because the Government needed to auction African artefacts to defray the costs of the naval operation. That taking the spoils of war is a human universal, so special pleading in the case of the Kingdom of Benin would only open a Pandora’s box.
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!