Losing our marbles: Should Britain send back its museum loot?

The Bunker

Podmasters

News, Politics, Society & Culture, Government

4.6 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2023

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Activists have demanded the return of contentious museum objects for decades – why are museums now starting to listen? Arthur Snell is joined by Dan Hicks, professor of contemporary archaeology and author of The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution, to bring some much needed clarity to a debate beset by culture war clashes. “Museums are moving with the time, but some on the hard right are weaponising the debate.” “In the 19th century, museums were put to work towards cultural supremacy – we now recognise this as wrong, so we have to move forward.” “You wouldn’t tell a biologist the latest developments in their field.” “There is so much ‘whataboutism’ in this debate – and time's up.” For 20% off the book add the code BUNKER20 here: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341767/the-brutish-museums/ Written and presented by Arthur Snell. Produced by Kasia Tomasiewicz. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:10.9	they hold how they came to be there and whether they should be returned to their place of origin has become the subject of fierce political debate
1:18.6	There are thousands of museum pieces in Western cities that were looted stolen or even bought in exploitative
1:25.2	transactions during the colonial era. Should those items now be returned or is this just
1:30.8	a pointless example of woke virtue signaling?
1:34.0	Well, to discuss this really tricky issue, I'm delighted to be joined by Professor Dan Hicks,
1:40.0	Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford and Curator of World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum there in Oxford.
1:48.0	He's also the author of a fascinating book published in 2021, The Brutish Museums. Dan, welcome.
1:55.8	Hello Arthur, lovely to meet you, good to be here.
1:58.4	Dan, thank you for joining us. This question of museum items and particularly here in Britain where our
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