via Völkerrechtsblog, 21 May 2024: Post by Anaïs Mattez on heritage restitution, and idea which has gained prominence by challenging the historical norm of museums acquiring looted artifacts without scrutiny. The shift, influenced by post-colonial studies, activism, and international law, particularly the 1970 UNESCO Convention, has led to significant legal and ethical changes in cultural property management. Although non-retroactive, this legal framework catalyzed conversations about post-colonial restitution, urging the return of looted artifacts to their countries of origin while highlighting issues of cultural nationalism and intra-national minority rights.
Since the 1980s, the cultural property narrative within museums shifted from a universal narrative to a national narrative. Scholars in critical heritage studies raised suspicion around phrases such as ‘cultural heritage of humanity’ as it appeared that Western Museums made use of it to justify the fact that they owned objects looted from indigenous and colonised nations. In this past decade, the universal narrative has lost the public’s unconditional trust. While the consensus remains that cultural heritage should be preserved and looked after, the public opinion leans in favour of heritage being preserved in its place of origin.
Recent research has revealed that the previously reigning universal narrative has hinged on imperialist nostalgia. Institutions have claimed that they were preserving universal heritage for future generations to cover for the lack of ethics in their collecting activities. This served to ‘launder’ a past of looting. Indiana Jones-like personalities have existed. They were curators, archaeologists, or academics who travelled the world. They acquired outstanding treasures for themselves and museums. The romanticised reality of their profession suffered when criminal charges started being pressed against established names of the art and museum world. Emma Bunker and Douglas Latchford, for instance, were active in Southeast Asian archaeology mostly in the nineties and early two thousands. Bunker donated many pieces to the Denver Art Museum to which she remained connected throughout her career. Latchford also ‘gifted’ items back to the National Museum of Cambodia. The pair appeared in a criminal complaint, and it soon became clear that the antiquities they traded for most of their careers had been looted from temples in Cambodia and Thailand. Major museum curators, including those of the Getty and the Louvre, or private collectors and so-called philanthropists such as Michael Steinhardt or Shelby White, have gone under criminal investigation and taken a reputation hit. Many of these allegedly stolen cultural properties have rightfully returned to their countries of origin.
