Museums of loot

June 20, 2022 11:28 AM

I recently read The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution by Dan Hicks. It was a dark, depressing read but also very enlightening. What other books can I read that examine how so much non-European art ended up in Western museums?
posted by bigyellowtaxi to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Best answer: The Whole Picture by Alice Procter looks at a few select pieces in museums (mostly British but also others in the West), would highly recommend.
posted by phlox at 11:54 AM on June 20, 2022

Best answer: The podcast Stuff The British Stole is a great listen; it has two five-episode series with each half hour episode covering a single artefact.
posted by Superilla at 1:41 PM on June 20, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Check out the new book Prophets and Ghosts: The Story of Salvage Anthropology by Samuel J. Redman
posted by gudrun at 2:20 PM on June 20, 2022

Best answer: Loot: Britain and the Benin Bronzes by Barnaby Phillips. Review of this and Hick's book together in the LRB here.
posted by Joeruckus at 2:22 PM on June 20, 2022