Jul 29, 2023·edited Jul 29, 2023Liked by Pallavi Aiyar
Oh how I love when you come with the evidence! Hollywood is not blameless either….perpetuating heroes like Indiana Jones who are tomb raiders and thieves.
Should the sublime looted statue of Ganesh be returned to the temple and bespattered with butter balls until the stone withers away?
Should it be kept as an art piece in a museum (where?) that ignores its primary function?
And if you return it, will it end up on a bucket list which denies most visitors proper viewing?
Such relics are furthermore used for unverified identitarian claims.
Just now in a farther instance: Lombroso was a racist and a quack. His vast collection of Southern Italian skulls is now touted in Turin as "The Museum of lies."
Your suggestion is unexceptionable. But in these troubled times where demagoguery and hyper-nationalism has been the leading note in the last decade or so it might be counterintuitive to expect this will actually happen.
I didn't realise the extent of the looting all the world over. How depressed it leaves me. Angry, too! Yes, it should all be returned to the home country where it belongs! Glad that some countries have the decency to do so. The UK should be ashamed of themselves for hanging onto the Elgin Marbles for as long as they have.
It’s a risky business. I’m thinking of the Buddhist statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Or the Russian Orthodox icons destroyed in the Soviet Union.
I appreciate your perspective on King Leopold, Belgium, and Congo. I worked in both places, and the Leopold legacy statues, monuments, and buildings in Brussels are monuments to remorseless crimes. It’s shameful. And now, the West is exploiting Congo again as her children mine the precious minerals needed for electric cars. Have we learned nothing?
Oh how I love when you come with the evidence! Hollywood is not blameless either….perpetuating heroes like Indiana Jones who are tomb raiders and thieves.
Don’t forget Lara Croft/Angelina Jolie, Tomb Raider.
Did not A K SEN call Indians argumentative?
Should the sublime looted statue of Ganesh be returned to the temple and bespattered with butter balls until the stone withers away?
Should it be kept as an art piece in a museum (where?) that ignores its primary function?
And if you return it, will it end up on a bucket list which denies most visitors proper viewing?
Such relics are furthermore used for unverified identitarian claims.
Just now in a farther instance: Lombroso was a racist and a quack. His vast collection of Southern Italian skulls is now touted in Turin as "The Museum of lies."
There is no easy answer
No easy answer… but that European museums need reform and should also help museums in the global south with technical support is clear.
Your suggestion is unexceptionable. But in these troubled times where demagoguery and hyper-nationalism has been the leading note in the last decade or so it might be counterintuitive to expect this will actually happen.
We can only hope.
oh yes, indeed, dear Pallavi, well said! Rolf
Never. Most of the loot will get looted without a trace, eaten by silver fish or just rot! Pl have a look at our national and other herbaria.
I didn't realise the extent of the looting all the world over. How depressed it leaves me. Angry, too! Yes, it should all be returned to the home country where it belongs! Glad that some countries have the decency to do so. The UK should be ashamed of themselves for hanging onto the Elgin Marbles for as long as they have.
It’s a risky business. I’m thinking of the Buddhist statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Or the Russian Orthodox icons destroyed in the Soviet Union.
I appreciate your perspective on King Leopold, Belgium, and Congo. I worked in both places, and the Leopold legacy statues, monuments, and buildings in Brussels are monuments to remorseless crimes. It’s shameful. And now, the West is exploiting Congo again as her children mine the precious minerals needed for electric cars. Have we learned nothing?
You lose me with this password nonsense.
Sorry?
Had difficulty verifying my password....
I thought I'd never get in