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Preserving legacies: Nations work to bring home stolen artefacts

Preserving legacies: Nations work to bring home stolen artefacts

AS the ascension of King Charles III reignites the debate about colonial injustices in African countries, a recent declaration adopted at a trans-continental museum conference in Dakar in 2023 offers a ray of hope for the restitution of African artefacts. Sixty museum directors from 38 countries - including 28 African and 10 European nations - meeting in Dakar in late April, issued a declaration to foster restitution, digitization of collections, research, education, and exhibitions. A 2019 UNESCO report estimated between 80% and 90% of all artefacts from the continent are in Europe. Further, a 2020 study by the Archaeological Institute…
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‘Restitution’ of looted African art just continues colonial policies – much more is at stake

‘Restitution’ of looted African art just continues colonial policies – much more is at stake

THE violence of the past is far from over. But it is disguised in many ways, made invisible and normalised. What started with the Spanish, Portuguese or the Ottoman empires continued with the British, French and Russian empires, and now the United States. Imperial political violence continues today in Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, and Iran, to name but a few. One of the disguises is “restitution”. Author FAZIL MORADI, Associate Professor, Faculty of Humanities, Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study, University of Johannesburg I’m a scholar of what I understand as catastrophic art – artworks which were made in worlds that…
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