Problematizing the encyclopedic museum: the Benin bronzes and ivories in historical context

Brodie, N. (2018), ‘Problematizing the encyclopedic museum: the Benin bronzes and ivories in historical context’, in Bonnie Effros and Guolong Lai (eds), Unmasking Ideologies: The Vocabulary and Symbols of Colonial Archaeology. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute, 61–82.

This chapter employs the British invasion and plunder if Benin as a lens through which to examine the ways in which cultural discourse from the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries has shut down meaningful discussion about colonial misappropriations of cultural property.