AIBU to wonder why the British Museum gets singled out?

[BluesandClues]

I am forever seeing posts on social media about how the British Museum stole everything, and they should give things back. It always someone just ranting at the camera as well, with lots of bad guy/good guy vibes. There’s never a discussion of the various facts of the matter.

I never see posts about other museums, why is it always the British museum?

Maybe you need to write a strongly worded letter to someone as you’re obviously furious. Bitching about it on here will accomplish absolutely nothing.

Well wanting is no crime, but they are no more likely to get the Nike of Samothrace back than the Parthenon sculptures.

sometimes i wonder if we could hand them all back then watch or learn how they get resold or destroyed ect and then say to the world we fucking told you so

This colonial bullshit about the BM being the best place for the world's treasures won't wash any.more when you have the fantastic Acropolis Museum in Athens, the brand new Cairo Museum and the developing CSMVS in Mumbai. All worthy homes.

I don"t need to write an angry letter to anyone because the BM recognises this and is loaning out treasures to those countries who apparently don't care about history. ----

We simply just had to! For safe keeping of course. 😂😂

I worked in the heritage sector for a long time and don’t disagree with the principle of restitution, but several scholars (who are also sympathetic to the idea) have criticised that book for its inaccuracies and misrepresentations. There are some interesting articles and discussions on it out there.

@CaptainWidepant, I don't disagree (as someone who also works in this sector). And the gossip I could tell you about the author.
But I still think it is a compelling read.

The Australian government puts significant effort into getting the British museum, and others, to do the right thing so my strongly worded letter would do no good. At I'm not 'bitching' about it, I'm discussing on a thread on the topic of British museum keeping things they've taken. I'm not furious either - annoyed sure - particularly about people discounting the cultural significance of this issue and the distress it causes some people to have their sacred items kept away from their ancestral lands.

It’s persuasive, I’ll give him that. And I know what you mean… quite the reputation, that one! 👀

That silverware was gifted to Russia, so not the same thing at all!

Oh my. Poor poor British people. So sad

I can't help thinking that there's some thinly veiled racism going on in this thread (I apologise if that's no one's intention) the idea that an Indigenous People are unable to take care of their own artefacts and that the British must do it for them is preposterous.
Aboriginal Australians have been walking this earth long long before British people existed and yet when the Brits turn up nearly 240 years ago they decide to not only take what they want back to Britain for themselves but also decide that Indigenous Australians don't have the capability to look after what they have owned and looked after for several millenia.

Everything there now was acquired legitimately at the time it was acquired.

Anything found to not be, is returned, and has been in the past.

That is completely untrue - both in the legitimacy claim and the returning claim. The British Museum Act 1963 prevents them from returning anything. The only exception is human tissues under a 2004 legislative exemption to the act.

Thinly?

It's the most visited museum in the country.

😄

What legal framework are you talking about - finders keepers? Successful conquerors stealers keepers?

@CypressGrove do you think Russia should return all the art it stole from Germany at the end of the war?

I don't know - and how is that relevant to the thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural objects, including sacred items, held in the British museum? Do you think those items should be returned to Australia? On what legal basis were those items taken and on what grounds is it ok for the museum to hold on to them?

I think the BM receives this attention as it houses so many well known artifacts, as well as being seen as representative of the height of colonial Britain.

I totally get the criticism, but I also get why the are few straightforward answers.

I don't know - and how is that relevant to the thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural objects, including sacred items, held in the British museum?

@CypressGrove
It is not relevant to the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander cultural objects but the op says I never see posts about other museums, why is it always the British museum? and there are various comments on this thread about art and objects’ rightful owners so it seems a reasonable question.

You haven’t answered my question but re yours - Do you think those items should be returned to Australia? On what legal basis were those items taken and on what grounds is it ok for the museum to hold on to them?

I have no idea about the legal basis but it would seem reasonable to return sacred objects and keep plenty of photographic records of the items in the BM.

It’s trendy to generally hate on Britain at the moment, I’m sure something else will pop up soon.

While that may be true, this particular debate is nothing new. It has been rumbling on since my childhood, at least. I remember my father and uncle discussing it when there was a big exhibition of Egyptian artefacts when I was still in primary school, this was early 1965 at the latest.

And it's nothing to do with hating on Britain, it's about respecting the history of other cultures and recognising the harm that was done to them by European expansionism. While there was undoubtedly internecine expansionism within other continents, none of it was anywhere near as damaging as the European conquest.

I think it’s one of those issues that has been hijacked by bad faith actors and so the arguments have a stink of insincerity about them, even though it is actually fairly important.

Dan Hicks for example, is obviously using the issue to promote himself and his career, rather than actually caring in an honest way.

If you think the BM is bad go and have a look at the Vatican museum! At least the BM has published the lists of its contents.

The whole point of the post you are replying to is it’s NOT sad, it’s happen and people get on with it. It is not a cry for pity it’s pointing out we don’t demand pity.