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Art, Cultural Heritage and the Market pp 165–181Cite as

How to Break the Deadlock in the Debate About Colonial Acquisitions?

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Abstract

Since their independence, many former colonies have pushed for the return of part of the material cultural heritage that they lost during colonialism. They claim to be entitled to the restitution of their cultural artefacts and to be ready to receive their cultural patrimony back. However, in most former European colonial powers, a discussion about the future of colonial objects and collections is being avoided as it is not in their interest. Colonial acquisitions are considered to belong to a distant past and to have become part of the colonisers’ own history. This incompatibility of aims has created an on-going impasse in the global arena, where the relations between former colonisers and ex-colonies are rapidly changing. In this chapter, I will look for ways to break this deadlock by drawing on legal studies, history and conflict studies, and mapping some lessons that can be gleaned from discussions about two other heritage categories: human remains and Nazi spoliated art. While the discussion mainly focusses on some Dutch cases, the analysis can have a wider impact.

Truth alone is never enough to guarantee reconciliation.

Wole Soyinka

Soyinka (1999), p. 81.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Plankensteiner (2007), p. 13.

  2. 2.

    See Sowole (2013).

  3. 3.

    Together with the Africa Museum in Berg en Dal in the east of the Netherlands.

  4. 4.

    See e.g. Opoku (2012, 2013).

  5. 5.

    Van Beurden (2012), p. 57.

  6. 6.

    Décret no. 2011-527 of 16 May 2011, published in Journal Officiel de la République Française, 18 May 2011.

  7. 7.

    Legêne and Postel-Coster (2000), p. 274.

  8. 8.

    Lubina (2009), pp. 198 and 194.

  9. 9.

    Sysling (2010), p. 58.

  10. 10.

    Van Brakel and Legêne (2008), p. 69.

  11. 11.

    Quoted in Sysling (2010), p. 56.

  12. 12.

    Engelsman (2007), p. 134.

  13. 13.

    Netherlands Advisory Committee on the Assessment of Restitution Applications 2008, p. 5.

  14. 14.

    Museum security network 13398 dd., 13 February 2013. http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Nazi-Looted-Art-s-Jewish-Owners-Sought-by-4289603.php. Accessed 21 February 2013.

  15. 15.

    See e.g. Museum Security Network messages nr. 13305 about Hungary (6 February 2013) and nr. 13404 about Russia (20 February 2013).

  16. 16.

    This possibility was discussed during the symposium Fair and Just Solutions? Alternatives to Litigation in Nazi-looted Art Disputes: Status quo and New Developments, organised by the Dutch Restitutions Committee on 27 November 2012.

  17. 17.

    In November 2000 the United Nations launched a plan for an international fund for return or restitution of cultural property to its countries of origin. Member States never showed any enthusiasm to contribute.

  18. 18.

    Drieënhuizen (2012), p. 18.

  19. 19.

    Willink (2006), pp. 196–197.

  20. 20.

    Ramsbotham et al. (2011), pp. 265 and 426.

  21. 21.

    Salem (1993).

  22. 22.

    Ramsbotham et al. (2011), p. 243.

  23. 23.

    Malan (2010).

  24. 24.

    Brigg (2008); Bercovitch et al. (2009); Malan (2010); Magazine Politorbis (2010); Ramsbotham et al. (2011); Santa Barbara et al. (2012).

  25. 25.

    See e.g. Soyinka (1999); Bevernage (2012).

  26. 26.

    Quoted in the New York Times of 17 February 2009.

  27. 27.

    Soyinka (1999), p. 48.

  28. 28.

    Ascherson (2007), p. 22.

  29. 29.

    Zagbayou (2007), p. 110.

  30. 30.

    Ghani and Lockhart (2008).

  31. 31.

    Bercovitch et al. (2009), p. 4.

  32. 32.

    http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/67/L.34. Accessed 20 February 2013.

  33. 33.

    Opoku (2012, 2013); Vrdoljak (2008).

  34. 34.

    See for all the reports http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/movable-heritage-and-museums/illicit-traffic-of-cultural-property/meetings/meetings-of-states-parties/2msp-1970-convention/#c288212. Rapporteurs were: Lyndel V. Prott (general), Folaryn Shyllon (Africa), Ridha Fraoua (Arab States), Keun-Gwan Lee (Asia), Kevin Farmer (Caribbean), Marie Cornu (Europe), and Patty Gerstenblith (North America).

  35. 35.

    Van Beurden (2012), p. 11.

  36. 36.

    See e.g. the reaction of Georges Mudenda from Zambia on August 19, 2011. http://www.museumbeveiliging.com/2011/08/22/reactie-uit-afrika-op-plannen-wereldmuseum-afrikaanse-collectie-te-verkopen/. Accessed 20 February 2013.

  37. 37.

    Steven Engelsman, Director Museum Volkenkunde, interview 23 March 2011.

  38. 38.

    Taco Dibbets, Head of collections, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, interview 19 April 2011.

  39. 39.

    Wim Pijbes said so in the Dutch TV-program Buitenhof on 27 January 2013.

  40. 40.

    Metcalf and Urwick (1963), p. 31.

  41. 41.

    Metcalf and Urwick (1963), pp. 32 and 35–36.

  42. 42.

    Saunders (2009), p. 378.

  43. 43.

    Bercovitch et al. (2009), p. 343.

  44. 44.

    The Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments wants to invoke the Committee’s help for the return of the 32 Benin objects recently donated to the museum of Fine Arts in Boston. See http://www.ncmmnigeria.com/category/updates/. Accessed 7 March 2013.

  45. 45.

    Resolution of 5 December 2012, A/67/L.34, para 29.

  46. 46.

    Museum Security Network message 13459, 27 February 2013, http://www.museum-security.org/benin-plan-of-action-for-restitution.htm. Accessed 7 March 2013. In this document the Benin Plan of Action has been reprinted.

  47. 47.

    Van Beurden (2012), p. 38.

  48. 48.

    Willink (2011), pp. 11–13.

  49. 49.

    Lubina (2009), p. 477.

  50. 50.

    International Conference on the Return of Cultural Objects to their Countries of Origin, Athens, 17–18 March 2008, http://www.unesco.org/culture/laws/pdf/Conclusions_Athens_en.pdf. Accessed 15 May 2013.

  51. 51.

    Vrdoljak (2008).

  52. 52.

    Cornu and Renold (2010), pp. 18–23.

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  1. Free University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jos van Beurden

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  1. Jos van Beurden
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Correspondence to Jos van Beurden .

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  1. Faculty of Law, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Limburg, The Netherlands

    Valentina Vadi

  2. Faculty of Law, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Limburg, The Netherlands

    Hildegard E. G. S. Schneider

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van Beurden, J. (2014). How to Break the Deadlock in the Debate About Colonial Acquisitions?. In: Vadi, V., Schneider, H. (eds) Art, Cultural Heritage and the Market. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45094-5_7

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