Decolonising collections? The Benin artefacts in British museums
<p>This thesis explores how British museums position themselves within the contemporary restitution debate, and specifically how they treat the Benin Bronzes, which have problematic provenance from the colonial past. Examination of the international law of the nineteenth century suggests that...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2021
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| _version_ | 1811140454711820288 |
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| author | Ter-Zakaryan, Z |
| author2 | Mulcahy, L |
| author_facet | Mulcahy, L Ter-Zakaryan, Z |
| author_sort | Ter-Zakaryan, Z |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>This thesis explores how British museums position themselves within the contemporary restitution debate, and specifically how they treat the Benin Bronzes, which have problematic provenance from the colonial past. Examination of the international law of the nineteenth century suggests that the colonial powers believed that provisions for the protection of cultural property did not apply to ‘uncivilised’ colonies. I argue that this mindset of seeing Africa as uncivilised is still traceable in the twentieth-century retentionist attitudes of some western museums and governments. During the second half of the twentieth century, a new set of international treaties and conventions generated two opposing approaches to the ownership of art objects: one asserted that they belong to humanity as a whole, the other to the cultures that created them. The tension between these two positions translated into moral arguments, amplified by the broader decolonisation movement. This escalation created the restitution dilemma with which western museums are struggling.</p>
<p>Against this backdrop, I examine how British museums present their Benin collections online. So far, twelve out of thirty-nine museums have provided comprehensive information on the objects’ history, their importance to the Kingdom of Benin, and how they were plundered by the British military. I show that university museums, museums in cities with a history of slave trading, and those with large Benin collections are more likely to do this. When these findings are placed together with observations of curatorial practices within two major museums (Pitt Rivers Museum and British Museum) and their involvement in a variety of decolonisation projects, it becomes clear that the stance of British museums in the restitution debate is nuanced, multi-layered, and occasionally counterintuitive. The thesis concludes with an open- ended question about the direction that museums are taking on matters of restitution and decolonisation.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:22:15Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:7fa67865-63c0-4f9a-b39b-77bad56a3b2a |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:22:15Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:7fa67865-63c0-4f9a-b39b-77bad56a3b2a2024-08-19T12:16:12ZDecolonising collections? The Benin artefacts in British museumsThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_bdccuuid:7fa67865-63c0-4f9a-b39b-77bad56a3b2aCultural propertyRestitutionCulture and lawMuseum studiesEnglishHyrax Deposit2021Ter-Zakaryan, ZMulcahy, L<p>This thesis explores how British museums position themselves within the contemporary restitution debate, and specifically how they treat the Benin Bronzes, which have problematic provenance from the colonial past. Examination of the international law of the nineteenth century suggests that the colonial powers believed that provisions for the protection of cultural property did not apply to ‘uncivilised’ colonies. I argue that this mindset of seeing Africa as uncivilised is still traceable in the twentieth-century retentionist attitudes of some western museums and governments. During the second half of the twentieth century, a new set of international treaties and conventions generated two opposing approaches to the ownership of art objects: one asserted that they belong to humanity as a whole, the other to the cultures that created them. The tension between these two positions translated into moral arguments, amplified by the broader decolonisation movement. This escalation created the restitution dilemma with which western museums are struggling.</p> <p>Against this backdrop, I examine how British museums present their Benin collections online. So far, twelve out of thirty-nine museums have provided comprehensive information on the objects’ history, their importance to the Kingdom of Benin, and how they were plundered by the British military. I show that university museums, museums in cities with a history of slave trading, and those with large Benin collections are more likely to do this. When these findings are placed together with observations of curatorial practices within two major museums (Pitt Rivers Museum and British Museum) and their involvement in a variety of decolonisation projects, it becomes clear that the stance of British museums in the restitution debate is nuanced, multi-layered, and occasionally counterintuitive. The thesis concludes with an open- ended question about the direction that museums are taking on matters of restitution and decolonisation.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Cultural property Restitution Culture and law Museum studies Ter-Zakaryan, Z Decolonising collections? The Benin artefacts in British museums |
| title | Decolonising collections? The Benin artefacts in British museums |
| title_full | Decolonising collections? The Benin artefacts in British museums |
| title_fullStr | Decolonising collections? The Benin artefacts in British museums |
| title_full_unstemmed | Decolonising collections? The Benin artefacts in British museums |
| title_short | Decolonising collections? The Benin artefacts in British museums |
| title_sort | decolonising collections the benin artefacts in british museums |
| topic | Cultural property Restitution Culture and law Museum studies |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT terzakaryanz decolonisingcollectionsthebeninartefactsinbritishmuseums |