Really interesting article

Really interesting interrogation of what a museum might be if it isn't a colonial institution

"[The building of] MOWAA is an attempt to [deal] with issues of restitution, with cultural artifacts, issues of memory and social memory but, perhaps more pressingly, [it] expands the role of the museum to bring relevance to contemporary creativity,” said Emelife[.]'

"As part of the construction process, archaeological teams excavated the area to bring to the surface Benin City’s surviving walls, moats, and gates, and incorporate them into the new structures, blending the region’s past with the museum’s outlook to the present and future."

That's really beautiful and cool!

I love museums. I want museums to find a new way forward. I want the Chicago Art Institute to return the Nepalese art that was stolen in the sixties and is part of a living tradition.

For things like that, they really ought to have artists on staff to create really accurate replicas of original pieces. That way, the originals can be returned and some science that doesn't rely on the original piece can still be done + the piece can still be on display.

Like, the British Museum has so many pieces that could realistically be 3D scanned, made into replicas, and the originals returned to Greece or Egypt or wherever

Yeah replicas have real value! The Field Museum in Chicago has its own fabrication shop behind the scenes so that guests can touch replicas, amongst other uses. And modern art from the same culture or a descendant culture can fill a gap in a respectful way, if there is a gap! Like the article points out a lot of holdings are so vast that there isn't a gap.

That's a huge part of how the British Museum thefts happened and went undetected for so long.