In his recent book The Brutish Museums, Dan Hicks calls for the radical rethinking of Western museums. He uses the case of the Benin Bronzes to call for the return of stolen objects as part of addressing the outstanding debt of colonialism.
Interior of Oba's Compound Burnt During Seige of Benin City (present day Nigeria), with Bronze Plaques in the Foreground and Three British Soldiers of the Benin Punitive Expedition 9-18 February 1897. Photographer Reginald Granville
Dan Hicks is P rofessor of C ontemporary A rchaeology at the University of Oxford and curator of world archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum in the U.K. His book The Brutish Museum s: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution focuses on the Benin Bronzes that were looted by the British during an 1897 punitive expedition to Benin City, in present-day Nigeria. As a result of the sacking of the city, thousands of objects from the Royal Palace and other ceremonial sites are now dispersed worldwide, with the location of many of these artifacts still unknown. Hicks uses the…
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