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

Brodie, N. (2018) ‘The Illicit Antiquities Research Centre: afterthoughts and aftermaths’, in E. Simpson (ed.), The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella, Leiden: Brill, pp. 719–733.

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.