New Federal Regulations effective in 2024 affecting USA Museums, coupled with an increased acknowledgement by Museums worldwide regarding issues of provenance and misappropriation of antiquities, artifacts and works of art, is leading to major, often dramatic, changes in the display and exhibiting of their Collections, and bringing the matter of repatriation to the forefront.
The increased attention calling for, and efforts demanding, repatriation of artworks and artifacts having questionable histories and provenance have become more widespread in recent years, primarily due to advances in research techniques, a rise in interest in art looted by the Nazis during World War II primarily from Jewish families, and a renewed focus on the practices in the art world that were allowed, and/or ignored, during the period of Colonialism particularly prevalent in the early 19th Century in Africa.
The ways in which museums and private collectors respond to these issues are likely to create major changes, and have a profound and lasting effect, upon current and future exhibitions and displays of artworks, artifacts and antiquities that have a questionable provenance, history and method of acquisition.
Herein below are recent stories in the news about several of those major changes by Museums both within and outside of the USA.
PRESS RELEASE: USA MUSEUMS ARE CURRENTLY REASSESSING AND REMOVING FROM DISPLAY THEIR COLLECTIONS OF NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL ARTIFACTS DUE TO NEW FEDERAL REGULATIONS EFFECTIVE IN JANUARY, 2024.
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Hall of the Great Plains
in New York City's American Museum of Natural History
Photo Credit: Jeenah Moon/The New York Times
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In January, 2024, new US Federal regulations governing the holding and display of Native American heritage and cultural items that were enacted to hasten returns, give institutions holding these types of artifacts 5 years to prepare all human remains and related funerary objects for repatriation, and also give more authority to Native American tribes throughout the process. The new Federal regulations require museums to obtain consent from Native American tribes before displaying or performing research on their cultural items.
In many instances, the original acquisition of Native American artifacts occurred during "an era" when museums in general were less concerned with "the values, perspectives and shared humanity of Indigenous peoples".
Several museums affected have already undertaken action in compliance with these new regulations.
"The result has been a major shift in practices when it comes to Native American exhibitions at some of the country’s leading museums — one that will be noticeable to visitors.
Per The New York Times article by Julia Jacobs and Zachary Small titled "Leading Museums Remove Native Displays Amid New Federal Rules", published on January 26, 2024, "The American Museum of Natural History [in New York City] will close two major Halls exhibiting Native American objects in a dramatic response to these new Federal regulations."Additionally, the article stated that "[m]useums around the country have been covering up displays as curators scramble to determine whether they can be shown under the new regulations. The Field Museum in Chicago covered some display cases, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University said it would remove all funerary belongings from exhibition, and the Cleveland Museum of Art has covered up some display cases.
"Exhibiting Native American human remains is generally prohibited at museums, so the collections being reassessed include sacred objects, burial belongings and other items of cultural patrimony . . . . . A top priority of the new regulations, which are administered by the Interior Department, is to finish the work of repatriating the Native human remains in institutional holdings."
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PRESS RELEASE: NEW LEGISLATION REQUIRING NEW YORK MUSEUMS TO PROMINENTLY IDENTIFY NAZI-LOOTED ART ON DISPLAY AS HAVING BEEN LOOTED BY THE NAZIS DURING WORLD WAR II HAS BECOME EFFECTIVE IN NEW YORK STATE.
By legislative act signed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul on August 10, 2023, artwork that has “changed hands due to theft, seizure, confiscation, forced sale or other involuntary means” must be accompanied, when publicly displayed, by a prominently placed placard or other signage that acknowledges this provenance.
By the State of New York’s count, the Nazis looted some 600,000 paintings from Jewish people during the War, as part of the Nazi party’s crimes committed to wipe out Jewish identity and culture.
In a statement issued by New York State Senator Anna M. Kaplan, "[A]rtwork previously stolen by the Nazis can be found hanging in museums around New York with no recognition of the dark paths they traveled there”.
The new State law in New York comes at a time when museums around the world are increasingly dealing with the question of looted art in their Collections, and museums within the USA are taking steps to comply with new US Federal Regulations effective in 2024 which require repatriation of misappropriated Native American artifacts to various tribes.
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OTHER CONTENTIOUS COLLECTIONS:
Museum collections in Europe are also facing criticism and calls for the return of artwork, artifacts and human remains looted during wars or obtained in other ways while these nations ruled colonial empires across the world. Among these are the famous Benin Bronzes at Paris’ Quai Branly Museum, a collection of bronze sculptures looted by French forces in 1892 from the Abomey Palace located in the Kingdom of Benin in what now is modern-day Nigeria.
Other contentious collections include the Maqdala Collection, taken from Ethiopia in the 1800s, as well as the human remains of more than 6,000 people, including Egyptian mummies.
In an article published in Forbes Magazine on October 27, 2021 written by Carlie Porterfield, titled "Europe's Museums, Collectors are Returning Artifacts to Countries Amid Fresh Scrutiny", it was reported that Cambridge University’s Jesus College had recently held a ceremony to return to Nigeria a bronze statue of a rooster that was taken from Benin by British troops in 1897 which had been on display in the College's dining room until 2016 when students protested to demand it be returned.
The same article cited herein above also highlighted the following:
A 4,250-year-old gold ewer from what now is modern-day Turkey that was on long-term loan by a private collector, and on display at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, was returned to Ankara after researchers found it was likely illegally looted and smuggled out of Turkey unbeknownst to the late donor, whose Trust had agreed to hand it over.
A French private collector turned over an ancient Mayan stela during a ceremony in Paris after the artifact was flagged by Guatemalan authorities in 2019 as being a piece that disappeared in the 1960s from Piedras Negras, an archeological site in the country’s northwest.
A court in Amsterdam ruled the city’s Allard Pierson Museum must return to the Ukraine a trove of objects from Crimea, a region of Ukraine that was seized by Russia in 2014, despite pressure from Russian authorities who said they would appeal the decision.
One of the most contentious group of artifacts currently displayed in The British Museum are the Parthenon Sculptures, a collection of 2,500-year-old marble sculptures that a British diplomat personally removed in 1806 from the Parthenon temple in Athens. The sculptures have become the subject of an ongoing diplomatic acrimony between the United Kingdom and Greece which contends they were looted. In November, 2023 Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis canceled a meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after he ruled out changing a law that bans their return to Greece. After the Museum’s announcement on January 25, 2024, Reuters reported that Mitsotakis renewed calls for the return of the sculptures, stating “Only by being seen together, in situ, in the shadow of the Acropolis, can we truly appreciate their immense cultural importance".
In another article covering the subject of museum collections of questionable appropriation and provenance, titled "British Museum Lends Ghana Looted Gold Artifacts -- Here's Why It Won't Fully Return Them" written by Zachary Folk, published on January 25, 2024 in Forbes Magazine , it was reported that two museums -- The British Museum and The Victoria and Albert Museum -- both located in the United Kingdom, have been confronted with the issue of looted artifacts in their respective Collections. The British Museum has announced that it is temporarily returning looted gold and silver to Ghana which the Museum acquired following a war which occurred in the 1870s, but only for a limited time due to several currently applicable British laws enacted in the mid-20th Century that prevent, or severely impede, permanent repatriation by British museums of looted and/or misappropriated artifacts in their Collections.
"The artifacts include 17 items from the Victoria and Albert Museum and 15 items from the British Museum, including dozens of gold items looted while the British Army raided the Ashanti royal palace that were auctioned off to the museums in April 1874.
"The Exhibition will not permanently remain in Ghana—the pieces are only on loan for three years, and will return to the U.K. in 2027.
"Several British laws also prevent the museums from outright returning these artifacts to Ghana: The British Museum Act of 1963 bans the Museum from removing an artifact from its collection unless it is a duplicate, is damaged or is deemed 'unfit' for the collection.
"The National Heritage Act of 1983 prevents the Victoria and Albert Museum from legally returning the artifacts as well, the Museum told Forbes, and noted they have not received any formal requests for repatriation for the pieces being lent."
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(Primary Sources: The New York Times; The Art Newspaper; Forbes Magazine)
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