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While we, obviously, spend much of our time writing about Stealing Culture, we also recognize and applaud the relatively rare but important contrast to Stealing Culture. These less frequent occurrences are defined by a culture regaining and reclaiming any part of its past. We often frame this activity using various titles – Protecting Culture, Rebuilding Culture, Repatriation, Restitution, and others. While we are always hopeful that each culture is able to speak and act in a way that suggests self-determination, we know that history often creates a set of conditions that require more privileged voices to amplify those of their less privileged brothers and sisters.

Recently, we saw benefactors being recognized for helping an historically less privileged culture recover their stolen art and artifacts. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/french-collective-returns-benin-heritage-1755405 As the article states, “A group of principled French art dealers teamed up to buy 27 looted African Artifacts at Auction.” Historically, this would be where the headline ended, but, this time, the headline continued on to point out that the dealers were purchasing these artifacts “so they could return them to Benin.” Moreover, the artifacts were being returned to Benin, not just because Benin was the culture of origin, but, additionally, “to support a small museum in West Africa.” As partially discussed above, and fodder for future posts, control of museums is important to defining a culture, its story, its history, and its destiny. The dealers’ actions also placed additional pressure on the French government to fulfill a 2017 verbal promise made by President Emmanuel Macron to return to Africa the vast assortment of art and artifacts taken by the French and currently part of French museums’ collections.

Stealing Culture is not just about identifying the wrongs perpetrated on communities, it’s about finding ways to right those wrongs. Social movements of the past can only be realigned by social movements of the present. These movements gain momentum when a significant percentage of the population forces citizens and governments to recognize the importance of a mission. The immediacy of the art dealers’ actions has reignited the public’s monitoring of the French government’s promise. The dealers have reminded the French government and the world that “we” have not forgotten. Stealing Culture is about helping everyone with a voice to not only understand, but, we encourage those same voices to engage every person and group that has the power to effect the change.

In the United States, we recently celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. His quote, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter,” seems uniquely fitting as these dealers have decided to amplify the voices of those who are unable or chose not to.

Image from https://news.artnet.com/art-world/french-collective-returns-benin-heritage-1755405.