Distorting history in the restitution debate. Dan Hicks's The Brutish Museums and fact and fiction in Benin historiography

Bibliographic Data

ID4774300
AuthorsStaffan Lundén (0000-0001-6411-1648, University of Gothenburg, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume31
Issue2
Pages202-225
Publication date2024-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Cultural Property (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0940-7391 • E-ISSN: 1465-7317
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0940739124000225
OpenAlexW4405452982
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited28

The debates on the ownership of contested cultural objects bring forth questions regarding the representation of history. But might these debates also lead to the fabrication of history? Previous research has analyzed how the British Museum's anti-restitution position contributes to its distortion of British (Museum) history. Instead, this article considers if - and, if so, how - history is distorted to argue for restitution. It examines the eulogized publication The Brutish Museums (2020) by Oxford professor Dan Hicks asking whether his claims regarding British mass atrocities in the conquest of Benin in 1897 can be substantiated by the documentary evidence. The investigation shows that this is not the case. The article also scrutinizes what the source material reveals about the death toll of the events of 1897. The results of the inquiry question oversimplified notions about culprits and victims in the wake of colonial conquest. It is argued that an incomplete understanding of the past impairs efforts to repair past wrongs and that questions about the ownership of colonial collections could productively be linked with questions about the representation of history, such as whose and which histories are told - or not - through contested objects

Archaeology · Art · Historiography · Literature · Political science · Restitution · African history and culture studies · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Law · Philosophy

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