Across Europe, Museums Rethink What To Do With Their African Art Collections
Attitudes toward returning cultural artifacts, often looted during colonization, are changing. In countries like France, Germany and Belgium, the talk has turned to restitution and repatriation.
Early in the movie Black Panther, a black visitor played by Michael B. Jordan confronts a white curator over African artifacts in a fictional British museum.
"How do you think your ancestors got these?" the visitor asks. "You think they paid a fair price? Or did they take it — like they took everything else?"
The visitor turns out to be the villain of the movie. But a similar (if less ultimately violent) discussion is happening in museums around the world over the volume of African art in their collections. Officials in Germany have art and artifacts taken from Africa during the colonial period. And more museum staff are meeting on the topic across Europe.
