Several museums in Europe and the United States have issued a landmark declaration opposing the wholesale repatriation of cultural artefacts seized during imperial rule or by means now considered unethical.
The museums say the universal value of collections of archaeological, artistic and ethnic objects in promoting culture outweighs the desire by individual countries or racial groups for their return.
The declaration is the most significant attempt by the world's leading museums to protect treasures, often seized during colonial rule, from governments or descendants of original owners.
Disputed high-profile treasures include the Elgin Marbles and the Benin bronzes in the British Museum and several thousand Egyptian works in the Louvre. The declaration on the "value of universal museums" may harm Australian Aboriginal campaigns for the return of artefacts and human remains from Europe.
It shows how difficult it will be for Aboriginal campaigners and Australian museums to persuade many European institutions to return pieces from their collections. Signatories include the Louvre in Paris, the Hermitage in St Petersburg, the Prado, Madrid, the Metropolitan, Guggenheim, Whitney and Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and the State Museums, Berlin.
The British Museum, which has a collection of Aboriginal remains, did not sign the declaration, but said its director, Neil MacGregor, supported its intent. Yesterday it was releasing the declaration to British-based media on request. "We don't believe in breaking up collections," said a spokesman, Andrew Hamilton.
{there was this common reaction a while back in the 70's I guess and then of course it spread, the basic idea being all these redskins and their history, versus the history of public school education and traditional white guy versions. and it was emotionally gripping, these kids whose parents had struggled, whose grandparents had had that flint-eyed integrity, and they were facing a world of chaotic hedonism and strange dysfunction, and the home place, the ranch, the timber, the cows and horses, the acres, all of that work, and some city weirdo with no clue, no callouses, no conception was talking about the 'noble red man' these drunks and punks, these ignorant assholes that ganged up and beat down, brown-skinned welfare vermin, well they had this reaction and it was basically, "we didn't do it, so we shouldn't have to pay for it. we didn't steal this land. we didn't massacre anybody." and it was me there in the passenger seat helpless listening, no place to hide, just taking it in. and what. you're gonna say, if you're me, ok these will live, these will die, it's only right. I said then I'm saying now, it's humility. the most dangerous position possible, the most vulnerable. your great-grandparents were psychotic murderers and they left a vast landscape you inherited and the blood has sunk down below the concrete but it's there and until you make redress the wound will not heal, the way ahead will remain dark, and you won't get anywhere. and it's a joke right? the australian version so similar to the eskimo so-called the Inuit actually the Crow and the Blackfoot the drunk Arapahoe, the Chiracahua, the Navajo, the Cherokee, the Potawotamie, the you name it but they have casinos now so it's ok. well no. that makes it worse actually.
and the stumbling drunk the welfare drunk the violent prisoner the ignorant the unmathematical the fat diabetic trailer trash beyond redemption, you did that. that's it. it's simple, and it's clear. you did that. or, if you didn't do that, you didn't do any of the rest of it. no taming the wild west, no clearing the wilderness, and you have no rights to the deed, I mean the legal documents, the deed of law or whatever they call it now. so you're stuck. that's australia, that's america. there's a way through. but it requires a commitment of valor and integrity the entire culture is blind to, and Rupert Murdoch's tribal wing is waiting to take advantage as soon as you hesitate. it's tough init?}
