© 2025 Boise State Public Radio
NPR in Idaho
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Debate intensifies around returning looted artifacts from UK museums

Published September 5, 2022 at 11:40 AM MDT
Plaques that form part of the Benin Bronzes are displayed at The British Museum on Nov. 22, 2018 in London, England. The British Museum agreed to loan the plaques back to a new museum in Benin City in Nigeria. The Benin Bronzes were taken from Africa. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Plaques that form part of the Benin Bronzes are displayed at The British Museum on Nov. 22, 2018 in London, England. The British Museum agreed to loan the plaques back to a new museum in Benin City in Nigeria. The Benin Bronzes were taken from Africa. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

More and more British museums are considering returning artifacts taken during the colonial era. However, others are still reluctant to relinquish their collections and questions remain over how to return artifacts.

Neil Curtis is head of Special Collections and Museums at the University of Aberdeen — which repatriated an artifact to Nigeria last year. He joins Here & Now‘s Scott Tong to discuss the debate happening in the museum community.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

You make stories like this possible.

The biggest portion of Boise State Public Radio's funding comes from readers like you who value fact-based journalism and trustworthy information.

Your donation today helps make our local reporting free for our entire community.

Donate