Why Museums and Collectors Do Good

Geoffrey Robertson, in The Weekend Australian Magazine, November 1, 2019:

There is a new cry for justice that is beginning to unsettle the cultural elites of Europe and America: it is a demand by formerly subjugated peoples for the return of their heritage – the art and artefacts plundered in previous centuries by brutal colonial armies, rich collectors and grasping missionaries. By what right do western museums and billionaire collectors keep property they know to have been stolen in earlier times, often looted in the course of what would now be termed crimes against humanity? [...] It’s time for their return: no longer can once-great powers get away with mealy-mouthed words of apology and regret for colonial abuses. They must surrender their loot.

It might be upsetting the cultural elites - but it is not upsetting anyone else. By what right do western museums and billionaire collectors keep this cultural property? Because they are well looked after and won’t be destroyed my religious fanaticism or neglect and stupidity.  In most cases, if those precious articles weren’t removed from where they originated they would no longer be in existence. These precious items should remain where they are, protected from those that may destroy them. There are plenty of examples recently of this type of vandalism. Recall the recent vandalism and trashing of ancient history, by bulldozer, sledgehammer and explosives, and the looting of museums, because they were deemed un-Islamic during ISIS control of historic sites? Gone, gone forever. What chance this won’t also apply to artefacts returned from European and other museums? Maybe make facsimiles, and return these to autocratic regimes likely at any time to be subject to civil strife by oppressed peoples? And meanwhile, ignore the majority UN supporters of such regimes, and their leftist supporters. Crimes against humanity? Hyperbole.