{"product_id":"the-brutish-museums-the-benin-bronzes-colonial-violence-and-cultural-restitution-9780745346229","title":"The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2021 Elliott P. Skinner Book Award \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"If you care about museums and the world, read this book\"--\u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Urgent, lucid, and brilliantly enraged...a long-awaited treatise on justice.\"--\u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"A real game-changer.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe Economist \u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"A bombshell.\"--\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Brutish Museums \u003c\/i\u003esits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation, and the decolonization of museums. Since its first publication, museums across the western world have begun to return their Bronzes to Nigeria, heralding a new era in the way we understand the objects of empire we once took for granted. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Walk into any western museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire. They sit behind plate glass: dignified, tastefully lit. Accompanying pieces of card offer a name, date, and place of origin. They do not mention that the objects are all stolen. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Few artifacts embody this history of rapacious and extractive colonialism better than the Benin Bronzes--a collection of thousands of metal plaques and sculptures depicting the history of the Royal Court of the Obas of Benin City, Nigeria. Pillaged during a British naval attack in 1897, the loot was passed on to Queen Victoria, the British Museum, and countless private collections. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Brutish Museums\u003c\/i\u003e sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation, and the decolonization of museums. Since its first publication, museums across the western world have begun to return their Bronzes to Nigeria, heralding a new era in the way we understand the objects of empire we once took for granted. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDan Hicks is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. His award-winning research focuses on decolonisation in art and culture, and academic disciplines, and on the role of cultural whiteness in ongoing histories of colonial violence and dispossession.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Pluto Press (UK)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50718050484498,"sku":"9780745346229","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_a6c94491-594e-4a69-b0a7-b1f699923e98.jpg?v=1734632717","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-brutish-museums-the-benin-bronzes-colonial-violence-and-cultural-restitution-9780745346229","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}