Colonialism

Catalogue for Royal Academy’s ‘Entangled Pasts’ show unpacks the institution’s problematic past

A collection of essays and biographies takes an innovative approach to exploring the RA’s role in creating a canon of art founded in empire and enslavement

Swiss government approves panel to assess claims for art acquired in Nazi and colonial eras

New panel is to find “fair and just solutions” for disputed works in museums

What will German monasteries do with colonial-era objects in their collections?

Wide-ranging nationwide survey will catalogue artefacts held by monasteries and convents that were collected by missionaries in Africa, Asia and South America

Canadian Museum of History acquires artist’s memorial to victims of the country’s residential schools

Stanley C. Hunt’s memorial monument features carvings of 130 faces, representing Indigenous children whose remains were found in unmarked graves near a school site

Booksreview

Book explores how museums can deal with colonial acquisitions and other problematic issues

A level-headed survey of the rise and fall of anthropological and ethnographic collections and what their futures may hold

Austrian government to propose law on returning museum objects acquired in a colonial context

Calling out the injustice of colonialism and following it up with "serious debate and concrete actions" is Austria’s responsibility, says culture secretary

Indian government challenges British newspaper report that it is making 'largest repatriation claim' against UK

Sources state that demands made for thousands of objects in British collections have been "significantly overstated", and that the report is "misleading"

France's long-awaited restitution policy is finally here

Guidelines for returning objects looted from former colonies and during the Nazi period are laid out in a report commissioned by Emmanuel Macron and written by former Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez

Booksreview

Book review | The tale of a magnificent boat with a violent colonial history

This account of the theft of a South Seas cultural treasure by German colonists in the late 1800s reveals a series of atrocities

Artist stages 'slave ship' installation at London building that once housed British Navy offices

Grada Kilomba's multilingual work is part of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair at Somerset House

Museumsanalysis

Berlin's controversial Humboldt Forum is finally complete—but 'the work inside begins now', German Culture Minister says

Twenty years since its conception and at a cost of around €680m, the new German museum must now follow through on its restitution promises

Canadian city’s decision to cancel statue of bison and fur trader is ‘authoritarian’, artist says

Ken Lum’s bronze statue, completed years ago but never installed, was deaccessioned by Edmonton for fear that it “may cause harm”

Horniman Museum in London hands over Benin bronzes to Nigeria

Major restitution development coincides with publication of new Arts Council England guidelines

Controversial slave trader painting at National Museum Cardiff—removed in wake of Black Lives Matter—is rehung

The work, depicting the Lieutenant-General Thomas Picton, is now on display as part of an exhibition reframing his legacy

Oxford and Cambridge universities approve returning 213 looted Benin bronzes to Nigeria

Charity Commission could veto the decision to repatriate objects from Ashmolean Museum and Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

South Australia’s Aboriginal arts community makes New York debut

Iwantja Arts sits in the heart of the outback, while its members use art to connect with one another and the rest of the world

‘The Benin Bronzes are returning home’: Germany and Nigeria sign historic restitution agreement

More than 1,100 looted items will be transferred though some artefacts will remain on loan to German museums

Berlin announces several restitution agreements with Namibia, Cameroon and Nigeria

Berlin Biennale conference will focus on "decolonising" arts and culture

Duncan Ballantyne-Way. With additional reporting by Gareth Harris

William Kentridge calls on UK to find consensus over its ‘shameful past’ like South Africa has with apartheid

Ahead of his major retrospective at the Royal Academy this autumn, South African artist says Britain needs "imaginative solutions" for colonial era statues

What has happened to France’s grand plans to return Africa's heritage?

Five years ago President Macron took the museum world by surprise when he announced a then-revolutionary restitution plan. Now the country’s politicians are at odds about how to implement it

In old photographs seen anew, Dor Guez brings the multiplicity of history into focus

The artist’s largest institutional show to date, at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, taps into universal themes, often by way of deeply personal images

Revolutionary Rijksmuseum exhibition reckons with Dutch colonial conflict in Indonesia

Timely show narrates Indonesia's fight for independence from the Netherlands through the life stories of 23 "eyewitnesses"

German museums foundation returns ancestral human remains in Berlin collection to Hawaii

A group of skulls is being handed over to a Native Hawaiian group during a mission this month to receive dozens of items from German and Austrian museums

What are the next challenges for cultural restitution?

The full story of colonial plundering lies not in museum displays but in unopened, uncatalogued boxes in store rooms

New report recommends Bristol’s controversial slaver statue—torn down by BLM protestors—be permanently installed in museum

After four people who toppled Edward Colston statue are acquitted, the debate over problematic public art deepens

UK Government Art Collection will review 300 works relating to slavery, colonialism and racism

Following questions by The Art Newspaper, tags stating the works were under interpretation were immediately removed from the website

Restitutionanalysis

Why Macron's radical promise to return African treasures has stalled

Four years after a landmark pledge to hand back colonial loot, French government has opposed a new restitution bill backed by the Senate

Lootnews

German museums may have thousands of looted relics from China’s Imperial Palace, research group believes

Collaborative research by major German institutions may expose huge amounts of Chinese objects taken during Boxer Rebellion

Ye Charlotte Ming