- An unfinished story from Asia
Last year, I attended a major conference on museums in Europe. Decolonisation was the big topic, and every session had debates about repatriation, provenance research, and institutional blame. The Benin Bronzes were discussed. Egyptian antiquities were discussed. African collections were discussed.
As the conference went on, however, I realised something odd. Asia was unmentioned. And then when a colleague from Indonesia brought up the topic of Southeast Asian collections, the moderator nodded graciously and then moved on to another topic. Decolonisation, it appears, is an African story. And that is all.
Marginalising Asia
This silence is noteworthy,…