One hopes not to find loot at an art fair these days, but at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London in October, one of the stands was focused on just such objects.
The collective Looty uses digital technologies to increase accessibility to art and heritage, and at 1-54 it presented its project Return Rashid! (2023), in which the group “executed a daring digital heist at the British Museum”.
Chidi Nwaubani, the founder of Looty, a collective focused on increasing accessibility to art and heritage, believes that digital technology can play a significant role in restitution.
By utilizing advanced techniques such as lidar technology and geolocation-based AR platforms, Looty executed a daring digital heist at the British Museum, digitally returning the Rosetta Stone to its original physical realm in Rashid, Egypt.
