Hartmut Dorgerloh: Where do colonial treasures belong?
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2023
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
The Humboldt Forum is one of Germany’s great cultural institutions, housing a collection of thousands of works of non-European art. Germany, like many former imperial powers, is now asking itself whether treasures grabbed by European colonisers should be returned to their countries of origin. Stephen Sackur interviews the director of the Humboldt, Hartmut Dorgerloh. Is Germany taking the lead in the restoration movement?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me Stephen Sacker. |
| 0:05.0 | My guest today grew up in communist East Germany with a fascination for Prussian history. |
| 0:12.0 | Now he leads one of the great cultural institutions of United 21st century Germany, the Humboldt Forum. It is an international art museum, an academic |
| 0:24.0 | institution, and a cultural centre, all rolled into one in a vastly expensive new building in the |
| 0:32.0 | centre of the city. Her d'Orgolo has to steer the Humboldt through turbulent waters. |
| 0:38.7 | The forum is custodian of thousands of works of non-European art, |
| 0:44.3 | many grabbed by the imperial powers of Europe from their colonies in Africa, Asia and beyond. |
| 0:51.0 | And right now, Germany is at the forefront of the debate about what should be done with these treasures |
| 0:56.8 | should the principle of restoration be applied after World War II Germany wrestled with the question of what to do with the trove of art looted by the Nazis now those demanding restoration are seeking redress, going back centuries. |
| 1:13.9 | The Humboldt put itself at the forefront of this restoration movement by agreeing to return |
| 1:19.2 | a collection of sculptures crafted in West Africa from the 16th century on, known as the Benin bronzes. |
| 1:26.3 | An agreement struck with Nigeria means those bronzes are being |
| 1:30.1 | handed back, a precedent which many of the world's other top museums may be pressured to follow. |
| 1:36.5 | But the questions facing museums, like the Humboldt, run deeper. In a world transformed by the |
| 1:42.2 | internet, digital information, virtual reality, and challenges to Western |
| 1:47.0 | narratives about the past, what are our museums for? Well, Hartmut-Dougalo joins me now. Welcome to |
| 1:55.1 | Hard Talk. Hello. It's a great pleasure to be in this amazing museum. I think it's fair to say this is perhaps the most ambitious cultural project |
| 2:05.1 | launched since the unification of Germany. |
| 2:09.2 | What is the motivating idea behind it? |
| 2:13.5 | Yes, it's the most prominent cultural project since serenification in Germany, and it is a debate |
| 2:20.9 | also about the new heart of the new capital of reunified Germany. So it was from the beginning |
| 2:27.5 | more discussion about the architecture, urban development, what to do with the site, where originally for centuries, |
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