Culture Talk

Should museums return objects taken under colonial rule? Asking honestly

I grew up in Lagos hearing about the Benin Bronzes as something taken from us, and only later saw photos of them sitting in glass cases in London and Berlin. Some have come back in recent years, and I remember how emotional people around me were about it.

But I want to hear the other side properly, not just shout. The arguments I hear for keeping objects are that big museums can conserve them, that millions of people see them, and that returning everything would empty some collections. The arguments for returning are that they were taken by force, and that a culture should be able to see its own history without buying a plane ticket and a visa.

Where do you land? Is there a middle path, like long-term loans or shared ownership, that actually works? I'm especially interested in people from countries that hold these collections, and people from countries that lost them.