The book by Titi and Fach Gomez contains the story of how imperialism and colonialism came to fill our museums.
Many of the works of art that we admire when visiting the Louvre, the British Museum or the Met in New York have an uncomfortable past. These are pieces that disappeared from their place of origin, torn from temples, tombs or palaces, and which are still being claimed today.
For centuries, major museums have collected objects from all corners of the globe, convinced that they were preserving humanity’s heritage. However, beneath this veneer of universality lies a history of conquest, plunder, and appropriation that continues to cast a shadow over our cultural institutions.
This book recounts the stories of iconic collections from Greece, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Egypt, Indonesia and Mexico to shed light on how they ended up in the museums where they now reside. In four cases, no restitution was made, but in two cases it was:
- 1. The Parthenon Marbles
- 2. The remains of Ethiopian Prince Alemayehu and the treasures of Magdala
- 3. The Benin Bronzes
- 4. The bust of Nefertiti
- 5. Gods, weapons and a prehistoric man from Java
- 6. Moctezuma’s headdress
