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VIRTUAL: IAS Book Launch - The Brutish Museums

29 April 2021, 5:00 pm–6:30 pm

brutish

The Institute of Advanced Studies and the Sarah Parker Remond Centre at UCL are very pleased to launch 'The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution' by Dan Hicks (Oxford) with responses from Adenrele Sonariwo (Rele Art Gallery) and Katharina von Ruckteschell-Katte (Goethe). Chaired by Paul Gilroy (SPRC/IAS, UCL)

This event is free.

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Institute of Advanced Studies

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Précis

Walk into any European museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire. They sit behind plate glass: dignified, tastefully lit. Accompanying pieces of card offer a name, date and place of origin. They do not mention that the objects are all stolen.

Few artefacts embody this history of rapacious and extractive colonialism better than the Benin Bronzes - a collection of thousands of brass plaques and carved ivory tusks depicting the history of the Royal Court of the Obas of Benin City, Nigeria. Pillaged during a British naval attack in 1897, the loot was passed on to Queen Victoria, the British Museum and countless private collections.

The story of the Benin Bronzes sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums. In The Brutish Museums, Dan Hicks makes a powerful case for the urgent return of such objects, as part of a wider project of addressing the outstanding debt of colonialism.

This book is published by Pluto Press — Book discount code: UCL30

All welcome. An event link will be announced on this webpage.  Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need assistance on the day, and follow this FAQ link for more information and to read our virtual events code of conduct. All of our events are free, but you can support the IAS here.