Kwame Opoku: ‘First Benin bronzes, then Ashanti gold.’

The Friends of African and African American Art of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ 2023 nominee for the Margaret Herz Demant African Art Award, Dr. Kwame Tua Opoku, is a retired United Nations Legal Advisor and a recognized voice in African repatriations.

In a live virtual conversation with Dr. Nii Quarcoopome, Curator of African Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Dr. Opoku will discuss his vast experience with restitutions and the nuances and challenges confronting the debate.

Also, he will address, among other topics, the merits and demerits of the partial repatriation of African cultural patrimony, when necessary, as part of the broader dialogue about decolonizing Western museums.

Kwame Opoku: ‘Let us first concentrate on the Benin bronzes, and when that is finished on Ashanti gold’.