Why a Kenyan art exhibit spotlights empty cases

In a display hall at the Nairobi National Museum, a row of glass cases at the center of a new exhibition sits empty.

That’s by design. They display an absence, representing the tens of thousands of objects taken out of present-day Kenya by Europeans during the colonial period – many of them stolen. At least 32,000 of those pieces, including works of art and other pieces of great cultural significance, remain in