Keeping Their Marbles: How the Treasures of the Past Ended Up in Museums - And Why They Should Stay ThereThe fabulous collections housed in the world's most famous museums are trophies from an imperial age. Yet the huge crowds that each year visit the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, or the Metropolitan in New York have little idea that many of the objects on display were acquired by coercion or theft. Now the countries from which these treasures came would like them back. The Greek demand for the return of the Elgin Marbles is the tip of an iceberg that includes claims for the Benin Bronzes from Nigeria, sculpture from Turkey, scrolls and porcelain taken from the Chinese Summer Palace, textiles from Peru, the bust of Nefertiti, Native American sacred objects, and Aboriginal human remains. In Keeping Their Marbles, Tiffany Jenkins tells the bloody story of how western museums came to acquire these objects. She investigates why repatriation claims have soared in recent decades and demonstrates how it is the guilt and insecurity of the museums themselves that have stoked the demands for return. Contrary to the arguments of campaigners, she shows that sending artefacts back will not achieve the desired social change nor repair the wounds of history. Instead, this ground-breaking book makes the case for museums as centres of knowledge, demonstrating that no object has a single home, and no one culture owns culture. |
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Abd al Rahman Acropolis Acropolis Museum American Indian ancient Antiquity Archaeology Art as Plunder artefacts Benin British Museum British Museum Press Cabinet of Curiosities California Press Cambridge University Press claims for repatriation Collection of Sculptured Colwell-Chanthaphonh Cook Cultural Property Culturally Unidentifiable Human Daniel Solander Debate Descensus Ad Terram display Duchess of Portland Earl of Elgin's Elgin Marbles Elgin's Collection Encyclopaedic museums Europe European Gallery Hamilton Smith Heritage History of Egypt identity museums indigenous institutions Inventing the Louvre James Cuno London Looted Lord Elgin LSE Law Marstine Moira Simpson Museum Matters Museum Theory Museums Association Museums Journal Napoleon National Museum Natural History Neil MacGregor Nineveh objects Oxford University Press Parthenon Marbles past Philipp and Perlmann Pitt Rivers Museum Politics Princeton Rahman al-Jabarti History reparations Repatriation of Culturally Rothenberg Routledge Sculptured Marbles Select Committee Shrunken Heads Sir Joseph Banks social Tasmanian Aboriginal Torpey Tradescant Unidentifiable Human Remains Voyage World York