from BBC News
UK exhibits seized in Australia
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Aboriginal artefacts, including two early bark etchings, have been seized in Australia while on loan from two British museums. The members of the Dja Dja Wurrung tribe have secured an emergency order preventing the items being returned to the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Gary Murray, of the Dja Dja, said:
It's not British culture we are talking about here, we are talking about our rights as a first nation... We believe strongly that they connect us to our country, our culture and ancestry...If you haven't got a past then you haven't got a future and it is our future at stake here."
How about the view point of the lenders? The Royal Botanic Gardens and the British Museum definitely want their artefacts back and reiterate the importance of continuing to lend objects to exhibitions around the world.
"Exhibitions of this kind, bringing rare material from collections throughout the world, provide invaluable opportunities to make available to the world public the latest research and interpretations of the objects and the human cultures that produced them...The Emergency Declaration puts at risk the very legal framework that allows such exhibitions to take place drawing on loans from Europe and America."
BBC is doing an opinions poll on this issue "Who should own historic artefacts?"and the comments posted so far are very interesting!
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This news story seems to fit nicely with an earlier article by the director of the British Museum - now reading almost like a "pre"-joiner to the comments on BBC web-site in relation to the story of the "detained" artefacts. Talking about being psychic!
ReplyDeleteIn defending the stance of the British Museum which sees its "civic purpose" as the custodian of artefacts in its collection - no matter how dubious their acquisition had been - Neil McGreggor argued that the museum is acting in good faith and facilitating "communities of interpretation" for the promotion of cross-cultural dialogue and understanding.
But of course, there is self-justification and then, there is self-justification ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3927833.stm
ReplyDeleteMore news on countries battling over artefacts. There does seem an element of self justification present, esp when I read the case about the British Museum not wanting to return the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece. Given that the new Acropolis Museum in Athens will be completed next year, the British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles had felt that that will be the best place to house and exhibit the marbles. However, the British Museum still maintains that it is the best place for the artefacts to be, as visitorship reach five million visitors every year. A request by the Greek government for a long term loan of the Marbles was even rejected. Perhaps they are apprehensive that Greece will refuse to return the artefacts?