The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution

di Dan Hicks (Autore)

Pluto Press, 2021

New York Times 'Best Art Books' 2020 'Essential' - Sunday Times 'Brilliantly enraged' - New York Review of Books 'A real game-changer'- Economist Walk into any Western 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 metal plaques and sculptures 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 Brutish Museums sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums. Since its first publication, museums across the western world have begun to return their Bronzes to Nigeria, heralding a new era in the way we understand the collections of empire we once took for granted.

• Autore: Dan Hicks
• Editore: Pluto Press
• Anno: 2021
• Rilegatura: Paperback / softback
• Pagine: 368 p.
• Dimensioni: 198 x 129 mm
• Peso: 351 gr.
• EAN: 9780745346229

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