Is a Museum Just a Trophy Case? (Update)

The world’s great museums are full of art and artifacts that were plundered during an era when plunder was the norm. Now there’s a push to return these works to their rightful owners. Sounds simple, right? It's not. (Part 2 of an updated series originally published in 2023.)

SOURCES:
- Matthew Bogdanos, assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit.
- Nicholas Cullinan, director of the British Museum.
- Victor Ehikhamenor, Nigerian writer and artist.
- David Frum, staff writer at The Atlantic.
- Dan Hicks, professor of contemporary archaeology at the University of Oxford and curator of world archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum.
- Bénédicte Savoy, professor of art history at the Technical University in Berlin.

RESOURCES:
- "These Looted Treasures Are Home. What Now?," by Alex Marshall (New York Times, 2025).
- "France's Long-Awaited Restitution Policy Is Finally Here," by Vincent Noce (The Art Newspaper, 2023).
- Africa’s Struggle for Its Art: History of a Postcolonial Defeat, by Bénédicte Savoy (2022).
- "Who Benefits When Western Museums Return Looted Art?" by David Frum (The Atlantic, 2022).
- "Museums in England and Wales to Gain Powers to Dispose of Objects on Moral Grounds," by Dalya Alberge (The Guardian, 2022).
- The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution, by Dan Hicks (2020).
- "The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage. Toward a New Relational Ethics," by Bénédicte Savoy and Felwine Sarr (2018).

EXTRAS:
- "Can a Museum Be the Conscience of a Nation?," by Freakonomics Radio (2025).
- "The Hidden Side of the Art Market," by Freakonomics Radio (2021).

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