Battle for the Museums: Fighting Back Against Cultural Colonialism

Museums can be both a valuable educational and cultural resource, and perpetrators of cultural colonialism, gatekeeping, and theft. In this Ethical Matters talk, we explore the underlying dark nexus of capital, art and power―and radical resistance movements fighting fiercely for exhibition spaces that serve today’s public.

One digital entrepreneur has taken matters into their own hands. Chidi Nwaubani created project LOOTY, which produces NFTs of looted objects in major institutions and sells them, with 20 percent of the proceeds going to grants for young African artists. Named after a dog taken from China and given to Queen Victoria as a gift, the project contributes to the charged conversations around restitution in a witty and anarchic way. The team executed a digital heist at the British Museum, making detailed scans of the Rosetta Stone that were transported, both physically and digitally, to Rashid, in Egypt, using Geo-located based AR. This allowed for one of the world’s first-ever digitally repatriated artworks to be placed back in its original physical realm.

Journalist Rachel Spence has watched visual arts become a flashpoint for today’s social divisions. She interviews artists, activists, directors and donors, revealing elitism and injustice. Business and finance launder their reputations through patronage, while governments exert authority by weaponising or attacking the arts―and gallery-goers and workers mobilise to demand better. How did we get here, and what awaits these institutions?