543. How to Return Stolen Art

543.如何归还被盗艺术品

Freakonomics Radio

社会与文化

2023-05-18

51 分钟
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Museums are purging their collections of looted treasures. Can they also get something in return? And what does it mean to be a museum in the 21st century? (Part 3 of “Stealing Art Is Easy. Giving It Back Is Hard.”)

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  • I mean, I'm quite famous for not doing what I'm told.

  • Well, that's very convenient for our purposes, I have to say.

  • You think we're 100% safe here?

  • Well, we can just keep a weather eye on those three.

  • Especially the man with the big fuzzy microphone.

  • That is me with Patricia Allen in the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow, Scotland.

  • Allen is the curator of world cultures for the eleven institutions that make up the Glasgow museums.

  • This makes her responsible for all non european objects in their culture collections.

  • We have come to the Kelvingrove to see a group of objects known as Benin bronzes, artworks and artifacts looted by Britain from the historic kingdom of Benin in what is now Nigeria.

  • The last time I tried to see some Benin bronzes in a museum at the British Museum in London, our microphones were confiscated, and then, as it turned out, all the Africa galleries were closed that day.

  • Today in Glasgow, we are having better luck.

  • So all of these heads were made by ancestors.

  • An Oba is a Benin king.

  • A newly crowned Oba would make the head of the preceding Oba.

  • They're placed on altars along with other offerings, including things like a bell.

  • There's an ebon sword, maybe some of the ivory.

  • What is that?

  • That's a ceremonial sword carried by the oba.

  • I see.

  • So we have two of these heads, this head, and another one that used to be on display at St.