I was surprised to read the editorial “ Museums should rise to Macron’s art challenge” (December 1), which included a number of errors, not least the confusion of Benin City in Nigeria with the Republic of Benin. It seemed to accept at face value the idea that all objects in museums are “stolen”, ignoring the undeniable complexity of the ways in which museum collections are formed.
There was no acknowledgement of the very extensive work that museums have undertaken with colleagues in Africa for many years on capacity building and training, in the British Museum’s case with Nigeria, Ghana, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. When I visited Benin City in September, the Oba talked about the value of having objects both in Benin City — allowing an African audience to engage with their cultural heritage — and in museums across the world to act as “cultural ambassadors”, to highlight Benin’s contribution to culture in a global context.
Museums play a vital public role in helping us to understand world cultures, and they already make a huge contribution to “the debate on how societies should best relate to the past” — in order to best shape the future. I ardently believe that we can — and must — do more to address relevant questions of colonial collecting and confronting our past. We have a long way to go but surely working together in collaboration and dialogue with our colleagues in Africa must be the key.
