Publisher's Synopsis
Looted art, art theft, colonial collections of cultural goods - not just since the controversy over the Nigerian Benin bronzes at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin has a dispute erupted about how collection objects from colonial contexts should be dealt with. The debate among experts, which had been going on for a long time, became politically explosive in 2018 when French President Macron announced the return to the societies of origin for the first time and had concrete steps examined. The demand for restitution of art treasures of colonial provenance became fundamental and extremely complex Questions about the present of the past have been raised in ethical, scientific, political, legal and aesthetic terms. They not only affect art historians and museum experts, but also cultural and science historians, lawyers and history educators, but also all those who visit museums, who look at colonial collections and who have so far had little concern with the provenance of objects . This volume is the first attempt to shed light on the historical-cultural dimensions of the debate and to bring them closer to a wider public. Around thirty German and international authors speak up. The essays make it clear how important it is to look at a core element of the current social debate about the legacy of colonialism from different perspectives: There are no simple answers, and it is precisely in this difficulty that the special task lies.
