Even the restitution debate is getting recolonized
Channel: De Balie
Date: 2021-10-13

Museum directors and curators reflect on Chimamanda Adichie's speech at the opening of the Humboldt Forum. 

Over the past years, museums from France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands have approved the restitution of several objects to their countries of origin. But is this enough to repair history?
In Berlin, the opening of the Humboldt Forum this year, displaying thousands of artefacts from Africa, Asia, and beyond, caused a lot of controversy. In June, Belgian Ministers announced that all illegally obtained objects from Congo will have their legal ownership transferred to the Congolese government.

These questions will be discussed with several experts from established museums:

Hamady Bocoum is a Senegalese researcher and director of the Musée des civilisations noires in Dakar, which opened its doors in 2019.

Nanette Snoep is a Dutch anthropologist and curator. Since January 2019 she is director of the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum – Kulturen der Welt, the ethnological collection in Cologne, Germany. She also taught African Art History and curated international exhibitions, including exhibitions such as „Resist! Die Kunst des Widerstands“ in the Rautenstrauch- Joest-Museum.

Valika Smeulers is a Dutch academic and curator. Since 2020 she is the Head of the Department of History at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. In this responsibility she curated the recent exhibition ‘Slavery’.

Pap Ndiaye is a French historian. He is a specialist in the social history of the United States and minorities, and has just been appointed head of the Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration (National Museum of the History of Immigration) in Paris.

Marion Ackermann is a German art historian, curator and museum director. She has been General Director of the fifteen Dresden State Art Collections since November 2016. Before this, she also worked as the Director of the Art Collection of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the Stuttgart Art Museum.

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