Conference „The Long History of Claims for the Return of Cultural Heritage from Colonial Contexts” (online)
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German Lost Art Foundation
Humboldtstr. 12
39112 Magdeburg
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 391 727 763 0
E-mail: kontakt@kulturgutverluste.de
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German Lost Art Foundation Berlin Branch Office
The current debate on how to engage with collections from colonial contexts may appear comparatively novel – but protests against the removal and theft of cultural property and human remains have already existed since the beginning of colonial expansion. Aleady more than 100 years ago, individuals, groups, and states defended their heritage and sometimes successfully reclaimed it. Researchers from the Global South and North, experts from Ethiopia and the Netherlands, Germany, Ghana, Colombia or the USA examined such historical returns, discussed case studies, analysed important historical moments and dynamics, but also asked about motivations: Does restitution really always mean decolonization? And what can we learn from the history of protests and restitution?
Three blog posts and a working paper were published for the conference:
- Rainer Hatoum “Potlatch Treasures, Wampum Belts, and Sacred Masks. North American Repatriation Cases preceding NAGPRA”
- Jan Hüsgen “’Strong Friends in Far East’. The Return of Spoils of War by the GDR to China in 1955”
- Reinhart Kößler “The restitution of human remains and artefacts. Reflecting on Namibian-German experiences”
- Lars Müller “Returns of Cultural Artefacts and Human Remains in a (Post) Colonial Context. Mapping Claims between the Mid-19th Century and the 1970s” (Working Paper Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste 1/2021) https://perspectivia.net/receive/pnet_mods_00004508
Please note:
The conference was held in English. German parts were translated: The opening remark of Monika Grütters, the evening lecture of Bénédicte Savoy and the roundtable discussion. Due to legal reasons we had to make images without stated copyright unrecognizable.
Opening remark of Gilbert Lupfer (Executive Board German Lost Art Foundation), Monika Grütters (Minister of State for Culture and the Media) and Hermann Parzinger (President Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz).
Introduction of Larissa Förster (German Lost Art Foundation)
Keynote
of Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu (University of Hawai’i at Mānoa) with interlocuter Wayne Modest (Content Director of the National Museum of World Cultures, the Netherlands)
Focus: Reclaiming cultural heritage under colonial conditions
Panel 1: Resisting dispossession: Early protest and claims for the restitution of cultural heritage
Chair
Aura Lisette Reyes Gavilán (University of Antioquia)
Speakers
- Wolbert G.C. Smidt (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany / Mekelle University, Ethiopia): “The deep history of restitution and monarchial power in Ethiopia: The cultural and local political context of demands for restitution of looted regalia by king of kings Yohannes IV from 1872"
- Dag Henrichsen (Basler Afrika Bibliographien & Department of History, University of Basel): “‘No ozohongue, no medizine’. Ancestral ‘objects’ and sacredness, claims and bargaining in early colonial central Namibia“
- Pierre Losson (Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University): “Archaeology in the neocolonial era: Why were early calls for the return of cultural objects to Peru and Colombia ignored?”
- Audrey Peraldi (Aix-les-Bains): “An early restitution request from Oba Akenzua II of Benin: Looted art, the return of copies and the geopolitical situation in the 20th century”
Interlocutor
- Honor Keeler (The Australian National University)
Panel 2: Restitution before the international restitution debate
Chair
Julia Binter (Zentralarchiv, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) represented by Maria Obenaus (German Lost Art Foundation)
Speakers
- Panggah Ardiyansyah (SOAS University of London): “Object as pusaka: The 1930s return of Bone-Gowa regalia and how it resonates into the contemporary Indonesian restitution debate”
- Lars Müller (State Museum of Lower Saxony, Hanover): “The return of the Mafue stone in the 1920s and the struggle of its collector Hans Schomburgk for his reputation”
- Amanda H. Hellman (Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University): “Building a cultural legacy and a national memory: The repatriation of the Bascom Bronzes”
Interlocutor
- Ciraj Rassool (University of the Western Cape)
Poster presentations:
- Marion Bertin (Centre Norbert Elias - Avignon Université & Centre de Recherche en Histoire Internationale Atlantique (CRHIA)): “The ‘Gomen Affair’ (1970-2020): The long history of protests and claims against trafficking Kanak objects”
- Odile Boubakeur (École du Louvre – Paris-Saclay): “Artists’ feathers serving the conservation in situ of archaeological remains: Timeless proponents of the modern debates”
- Gracia Lwanzo Kasongo (Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain)): “Decolonizing negotiation for the restitution of Congolese heritage acquired during Belgian colonization”
- Jan Küver (University of Iringa, Tanzania, fahari yetu Tanzania): "Stirring up a hornet's nest or letting sleeping dogs lie? Historical narratives of the whereabouts of human remains from Iringa, Tanzania"
- Isabella Archer (Université de Poitiers - École du Louvre): "Claims to the Crac des Chevaliers during the French Mandate and Syrian Indepenence"
Focus: Reclaiming cultural heritage in the wake of decolonization
Panel 3: Is it really decolonization? Discussing ethics and agendas of return
Chair
Lars Müller (State Museum of Lower Saxony, Hanover)
Speaker
- Sarah van Beurden (The Ohio State University): “Les contentieux: Past and present Belgian-Congolese debates about restitution”
- Klaas Stutje (NIOD Institute for War Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam): “Between ‘everything’ and the most important few: The long history of Indonesian Dutch restitution debate”
- Claire Wintle (University of Brighton (UK)): “Repatriation without ethics: Apathy and isolationism in the return of colonial collections from UK museums, 1945-1970”
Interlocutor
- Wim Manuhutu (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Evening lecture
with Bénédicte Savoy (Chair for Modern Art History, TU Berlin): “About institutional and other lies” and interlocutor Wayne Modest (Content Director of the National Museum of World Cultures, the Netherlands)
Panel 4: Ancestors, national heros, world heritage – The meaning of human remains in repatriation politics
Chair
Sarah Fründt (German Lost Art Foundation)
Speakers
- George Okello Abungu (Okello Abungu Heritage Consultants): “The lost past: Reclaiming a history and identity broken”
- Fenneke Sysling & Caroline Drieënhuizen (Leiden University Open University of the Netherlands): “ Java man: Indonesian claims and natural history museums”
- Nira Wickramasinghe (Leiden University): “The making of national objects: The return of a throne and a skull in colonial Sri Lanka”
Interlocutor
- Amber Aranui (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa)
Panel 5: Reclaiming and redefining the colonial archive
Chair
Jan Hüsgen (German Lost Art Foundation)
Speakers
- Rakesh Ankit (Loughborough University): “’In trust for the three nations’? The Indian office library & records dispute, 1947-72”
- Riley Linebaugh (International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture at Justus-Liebig-University Gießen): “Pursuing colonial archival restitution: The Kenyan case”
- Fabienne Chamelot (University of Portsmouth (UK)): “Archives and the decolonization process in French West Africa, 1958-1960”
Interlocutor
- Forget Chaterera-Zambuko (Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi)
Roundtable discussion: „What can the history of restitution claims and actual return teach us for the future?”
Chair
Stefan Koldehoff (Deutschlandfunk)
Panelists
- Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard (Dekoloniale, Berlin)
- Barbara Plankensteiner (Director Museum am Rothenbaum, Hamburg)
on screen
- Albert Gouaffo (Université de Dschang/Cameroon)
- Nana Oforiatta Ayim (ANO Institute of Arts & Knowledge, Accra, Ghana)
- Markus Hilgert (Secretary General and CEO of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States and Director of the recently established German Contact Point for Collections from Colonial Contexts)