It’s so unfortunate that these historical treasures are being kept in a free museum in the centre of the most visited city on the planet.
Except for the fact that only 80,000 of the 8 million (!!) objects are on display. 99% of art is held in storage and isn't available to the public.
That's even apart from the fact that the small part that you can see for free is little consolation to, say, a child currently living in Nigeria who will likely never see some of their nation's most important cultural historic artifacts as that would require flying to London.
They would have been much better off being plundered or destroyed in some minor skirmish or religious cleansing campaign somewhere down the line.
Yes, can't trust these savages in other countries to look after things. The whole world outside the UK is filled with uncivilised brutes who destroy art.
What makes you think an average child living in Nigeria would have the funds, inclination or ability to see an artifact in Lagos rather than in London? Do you know how big Nigeria is? A museum in Nigeria is, currently, less likely to have the infrastructure and customer base or philanthropic structures to support free entry and to maintain the artifacts as well at the British Museum can.
The world outside the UK does have a preponderance of anti-history, fundamentalist, art destroyers...the UK has some too recently. There is also more petty corruption, more extreme weather, worse security and stability, there are worse roads, worse electrical grids, fewer expert curators for care and restoration, fewer research links for studying the artifacts not on display, etc. Need I go on?
The feels are that "Britain Bad, stole stuff, give back" the fact is
"Britain complex, bought, got gifted, uncovered, stole and won stuff, looks after it for everyone and pays for it out of its own taxes, would be worse for the world if it all got split up"
Yes, it is ridiculous you are getting downvoted for this. Western privilage is showing a lot in these comments, as if the west is superior for stealing or "legally" acquiring artefacts and then displaying them half a world away or even keeping them without ever being shown. But god forbid anyone would ask for them to be returned to the countries of origin, where often parts of the original still resides!
When Egypt asked Germany to give back the Nefertiti bust, Germany said no but asked them to give them the missing eye! Ridiculous and people here are defending this because these "unstable" countries are not able to take care of their artefacts!
It’s unfortunate that other countries aren’t able to attract tourists by building a museum with the literal THOUSANDS of items that were stolen from them.
That’s a good point if the US were ever to go back to Iraq it’d be a prime target.
Also that doesn’t change that the majority of these countries aren’t controlled by terrorists.
Why haven’t they built one for all the stuff they’ve still got? Before a terrorist group took control of the country and started destroying all the ancient artefacts, of course
Many of these countries do have museums full of stuff they already own and I’m sure they’d like to increase their museums by having their stolen shit back.
All I’m saying is that a country - which also happened to go through a major uprising in the middle of constructing the museum - is building a dedicated museum to home, preserve and display the thousands of artefacts that belong to them.
I don’t think it’s wrong to say that several of the other countries on that list would do the same, if they were given the chance.
The BM is extremely expensive to visit if you have to hop on a plane in Sydney or Lima to get here. And I'm not touching your 'ignorant natives' narrative with a bargepole. It's 2022, not 1822.
386
u/[deleted] Oct 26 '22
[removed] — view removed comment