The British Museum: Library of the world or storage of stolen colonial-era goods?

The British Museum, the world’s biggest historical and cultural repository, is always in a tight spot regarding its ownership of most of the items it displays. Geoffrey Robertson QC, a human rights lawyer, accused the museum of housing “stolen property, and the great majority of their loot is not even on public display”. QC is not the only one after the British Museum’s accountability for those items.

Egypt is one of the countries featured in the British Museum’s permanent and main collections. The country has since 2009 asked the museum to return its Rosetta Stone. Former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs of Egypt Zahi Abass Hawass was positive about the request, especially after the Metropolitan Museum in the same year announced that it would return 19 objects from King Tutankhamun’s tomb.

However, when Hawass requested for the artefact to be loaned to the country it came from, the British Museum said that no official demand to return the artefact has been made.

Rapa Nui Council of Elders President Carlos Edmunds in 2018 worked together with Chilean Minister of National Assets Felipe Ward to visit Hoa Hakananai’a, one of Easter Island’s iconic lava rock statues, known as moai, sculpted by their ancestors. On the occasion, they asked the museum to return the artefact. “It embodies the spirit of an ancestor, almost like a grandfather,” said Edmunds, adding, “This is what we want returned to our island – not just a statue.” The community also wanted to work with the museum for assistance to preserve the existing moais in the island.

Greece in 2020 made returning the Parthenon Marbles displayed in the British Museum a priority while carrying out the restoration project to undo the damages done by British aristocrats who removed the artefact in the 19th century. However, there is still no response from the British Museum. The institution back in 2014 also refused UNESCO’s offer to mediate negotiations for the return of the artefact.

Nigeria this year asked the British Museum to return some of its most prized possession: the Benin bronzes. The artefacts are among the most culturally significant African artefacts as they were made in the 16th century with finery. The museum has been criticised for keeping those artefacts as they symbolise the colonial greed of what is supposed to be the country’s past. Ahiamwen Guild, a guild of local artists and bronze-casters, even offered the museum their artworks in exchange for the bronzes the institution is keeping. 

"We never stopped making the bronzes even after those ones were stolen," said Osarobo Zeickner-Okoro, a founding member of the Ahiamwen Guild, "I think we make them even better now."

As an institution, many consider the British Museum to embody British colonialism at worst, but at best, even some of these countries that demand their artefacts back appreciate the fact that the museum did a great job preserving what could also have been lost to time.