#lootedartifacts — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #lootedartifacts, aggregated by home.social.
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New York Times: Europe’s Museums Confront the (Literal) Skeletons in Their Closets. This link goes to a gift article. “There are thousands of colonial-era human remains, including skulls, skeletons, mummies, hair and teeth, in European collections. Many are from anatomical troves that medical institutions used for scientific research, and others belong to natural history museums. Most were […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/04/13/new-york-times-europes-museums-confront-the-literal-skeletons-in-their-closets/ -
The Conversation: Looted African belongings must be returned: is it repatriation or restitution? The words we use matter. “In our recent article we explained how we see this difference, and why the work of restitution restores people’s power over their future, and gives them a sense of agency. We argue that, for its part, repatriation has come to represent something less concerned with […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2025/12/28/the-conversation-looted-african-belongings-must-be-returned-is-it-repatriation-or-restitution-the-words-we-use-matter/ -
AFP: Finland returns sacred stool looted by France to Benin. “Benin on Tuesday received from a Finnish museum a sacred ‘katakle’ three-legged stool, symbol of the African nation’s artistic wealth looted by French colonial troops in the late 19th century. The stool was the missing piece from 27 items of cultural treasure from the royal palaces of Abomey, inhabited by the kings of the west […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/16/afp-finland-returns-sacred-stool-looted-by-france-to-benin/
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New York Times: Museum’s Benin Bronzes Are Reclaimed by Wealthy Collector. “The fact that so many artifacts were removed by British forces from Benin, in present-day southern Nigeria, has led museums including the Smithsonian to return some of those items to Africa. The repatriation is part of a broader reckoning within the art world about how to handle vast amounts of cultural patrimony […]
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Straits Times: Nigeria’s museum agrees with royal ruler on custody of Benin Bronzes. “Nigeria’s national museum commission will be responsible for retrieving and keeping priceless Benin Bronzes, taking on the task with the assent of the royal ruler appointed sole owner and custodian of the objects nearly two years ago, its head said. Nigeria is on a quest to recover the thousands of intricate […]