“Any and every heritage item taken from India without consent is illegal and should be returned to us,” says Anuraag Saxena, co-founder of the non-profit India Pride Project, which has helped the government identify artefacts that rightfully belong in India.
But when an object is more than 100 years old, and has changed hands over many generations, where do you draw the line?”įor some, that line is clear. Due diligence of religious items is especially high. “Today, if a museum knows that an object’s provenance is dubious, they won’t acquire it. “Repatriating items is a small but important issue for museums today,” says Vinod Daniel, a museologist and member of the Board of the International Council of Museums. The 10-year-old Duleep Singh was forced to surrender the massive diamond to the British East India Company after the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849. See the list alongside to get a sense of how much of our heritage has escaped our borders (the Koh-i-noor, which remains in the possession of the Queen of England, is only one sparkling example). India has managed to bring 212 ancient artefacts back from foreign countries since 1976, the overwhelming majority of these returns effected by the Narendra Modi government, which is prioritising the repatriation of treasures obtained illegally from India.īut consider that there are thousands of objects taken from India as war trophies, excavated loot, souvenirs, specimens for scientific study, and that number starts to pale. Explanatory labels that used to boast of dominance over savage peoples, in those terms, now mindfully note the expansion of Western empires as periods of subjugation, exploitation and violence. At top museums, exhibits that remain (and there are still too many) are subtly changing too.
Host countries are more aware of the racist, colonial baggage that accompanies their amassed treasure.
0 kommentar(er)
