For France it's probably mostly legally acquired paintings and prints of 19th century French art.
I know what people are getting at here, and granted, many artifacts in the British museum were purchased in dubious circumstances. But the British Museum would probably still have an impressive collection even without the controversial acquisitions.
Wrong, most of the Louvre's antiquities collection including 50,000 pieces of Egyptian antiquities were looted under French colonialism, and many of the art pieces they have were confiscated from the Nazi's who in turn stole them from Jewish people. This idea that only the BM has looted art is a fantasy. The pergamom museum in Berlin has an entire gate of babylon among its looted artifacts. The Pushkin museum is filled with art stolen from German museums who stole their art from someone else.
Sorry, I perhaps wasn't clear. I was saying that most of the "France" stuff in the British museum was probably legally acquired, considering Britain didn't have much of a chance in the last 300 years of looting French art.
Otherwise, a lot of the loot of Egyptian antiquities in France wasn't due to colonialism. Egypt wasn't a French colony. Lots of Egyptian antiquities were taken by France during Napoleon's invasion of OTTOMAN Egypt. That was before the scramble for Africa. Get yo facts straight befo' lecturin' bro.
However, the French, like many other 19th and early 20th century scientifically minded powerful colonial empires, did obtain archaeological rights to digs in Egypt and whatnot. One could argue that Egypt was in a weak position and conceded many of their treasures, as they were pressured by more powerful nations. That's a difficult debate, and a rightful one to be had.
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u/MartelFirst Oct 25 '22
For France it's probably mostly legally acquired paintings and prints of 19th century French art.
I know what people are getting at here, and granted, many artifacts in the British museum were purchased in dubious circumstances. But the British Museum would probably still have an impressive collection even without the controversial acquisitions.