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Imperatives of Restitution: Standards and Funding

Imperatives of Restitution: Standards and Funding the communities where African art objects paradigm for this undertaking. Any such or government officials, as determined by the originate helps to elucidate their meaning and consortium or task force would need to seek histories of each object. Any other associated significance. Therefore, such collaborations assistance from a wide range of experts in the costs—such as hiring translators, international should broach exhibitions and personnel field of African arts and, more importantly, shipping, conservation work prior to repatri- development. Engaging in collaborative exhi- outside of it. We need to draw on both suc- ation, knowledge sharing programs such as bitions with the potential of adding venues on cessful and unsuccessful cases of repatriation professional development sessions—would the continent will abate the concern with how for models, possibly looking to the Native also need to be taken into account. All of this to view shows and works from great distances. American Grave Protection and Repatriation is too important to do unsatisfactorily, and we er Th e is also a need for active participation Act (NAGPRA), which has limited parallels need to estimate the costs to do it right. in initiatives like the Digital Benin Project but could still serve as a framework. We also e s Th ource of this funding is a bigger and the Benin Dialogue Group (Museum am need to consult a wide range of thinkers, such question. Once we have an idea of the funds Rothenbaum 2020). These initiatives are all as African museum professionals, members required, museums will have stronger cases underpinned by the goal of collaborating with of African stakeholder groups in the diaspora, when going to resources such as the Institute the cultures involved to reach workable solu- American and European Africanist museum of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to tions of the repatriation conversation. The cre- professionals, museum specialists from other seek grants that would allow digitization and ation of programs that facilitate the exchange fields who have been repatriating objects for organization to properly publicize collections. of personnel will allow African counterparts to decades, as well as cultural property lawyers, Until we identify a procedure for identifying obtain valid training in American institutions. UNESCO employees, and state department potential restitutions and steady, dedicated This will oer t ff hem the necessary tools to deal personnel who can provide insight into the lines of funding for this lengthy process, the with cultural patrimony whenever they come complexities of exchanges between American steps of repatriation will be slow, piecemeal, into contact with it. institutions and foreign nations. This could be and largely left in the hands of curators and a moment for a pilot program consisting of the institutions that employ them, which is, in References cited a small number of museums, each dedicated my opinion, not necessarily where the power de Young Museum. 2020. “Reflecting on the Restitu- to returning a similar body of objects, with should entirely reside in these matters. tion of Art from the Benin Kingdom in the Wake of Sarr-Savoy Report.” February 21. https://deyoung.famsf. these partner institutions together shouldering Notes org/calendar/reflecting-restitution-art-benin-king- the first steps of drain ft g guidelines for best 1 Th e Cultural Property Advisory Committee, part of dom-wake-sarr-savoy-report practices. the Federal Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, works to enforce the United States’ obligation to the Museum am Rothenbaum. 2020. “Digital Benin: Recon- It would also be imperative to understand 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting necting Royal Art Treasures.” https://digitalbenin.org/ the cost of accomplishing this. We have seen and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Raicovich, Laura. 2019. “One Museum’s Complicated Ownership of Cultural Property, but they do not have in the age of COVID-19 that most museum a specific mandate to promote the return of illegally Attempt to Repatriate a ‘Benin Bronze’.” Hyperalle - r 3 budgets are balancing on a knife’s edge. obtained objects from Africa prior to 1970. gic , June 24. https://hyperallergic.com/506634/be- e det Th ailed work of provenance research is 2 Th e Association of Art Museum Directors nin-bronze-head-interview/ (AAMD) has reached out to museum directors for this complex and time consuming. Many cura- Sarr, Felwine, and Bénédicte Savoy. 2018. e Th Restitution purpose, but this inquiry has yet to produce guidelines tors have focused their efforts on researching and there are no mentions of this on the AAMD website of African Cultural Heritage. Toward a New Relatio- objects looted in the Siege on Benin —not as of August 2020. nal Ethics, trans. Drew S. Burk. Paris: Ministère de la 3 According to a July 22, 2020 article posted by the culture. only because it is a well-documented, clear-cut American Alliance of Museums (AAM), one-third of case of objects taken without consent, but also all museums may close as a result of COVID-19 (AAM, 2020). Furthermore, layoffs and furloughs have been due to how well documented their sales have IMPERATIVES OF RESTITUTION: enacted by many institutions large and small, such at STANDARDS AND FUNDING been, which makes provenance easier to trace. the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Metropolitan Robust documentation is not the norm for Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Erica P. Jones, Associate Curator of African Walker Art Center, to name only a few. most stolen art from this period, and proper Arts, Fowler Museum at UCLA 4 A brief survey of twenty-five articles published in research for most objects requires much more 2019 about the repatriation of African arts showed that e co Th mplex nature of repatriation and restitu- time, funding, and travel to either archives or sixteen of the twenty-five directly referenced objects tion of African arts has been clearly articulated taken in the Siege on Benin as a primary example of arts communities where the objects were originally that should be restituted. by First Word author Amanda M. Maples, made. At the Fowler Museum, we are fortunate and other recent First Word authors (Roberts to have received an Andrew W. Mellon grant References cited 2019; Ndiaye 2019), as well as participants in American Alliance of Museums. 2020. “United States allowing us to hire additional researchers May Lose One-third of All Museums, New Survey the various conferences held over the past two and to do in-depth provenance research on a Shows.” [Press Release]. July 22. https://www.aam-us. years on the topic. As such, I will restrict my subset of our African arts collection. But this org/2020/07/22/united-states-may-lose-one-third-of- comments to some of the issues raised by my grant only supports three years of research, all-museums-new-survey-shows/ provenance research on the Fowler Museum’s and it will be impossible to maintain that level Ndiaye, El Hadji Malick, and John Warne Monroe. 2019. collection. Based on my limited experience, we of activity when the grant period ends. “Musée, colonisation, et restitution”/“Restitution and are desperately in need of two vital resources: the Logic of the Postcolonial Nation-State” [First Word]. At this point, it is difficult to know just how a set of guidelines or best practices and the African Arts 52 (3): 1–6. much it will cost museums to properly prepare funding to implement them. themselves to field repatriation requests, Roberts, Allen F. 2019. “Is Repatriation Inevitable?” Without a national mandate to restitute [First Word]. African Arts 52 (1): 1-7. and, of course, this amount will vary among stolen African arts, American institutions institutions depending on the size of their are left to determine a process on their own. collections. Some anticipated costs include Many of the African arts curators I know are digitizing entire collections, making that digi- engaged in some form of provenance research, tized collection data widely available, travel to and it makes little sense for each of us to create and from Africa for curators and stakeholder separate approaches to outreach, communi- communities, engaging legal advisors, and cation, and resolution (be that repatriation or finding and involving new teams of stakehold- not). American-based curators at institutions ers, which could include individuals, commu- with African arts collections should convene nity representatives, museum professionals, a consortium to discuss and develop a shared 8 african arts SPRING 2021 VOL. 54, NO. 1 http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png African Arts MIT Press

Imperatives of Restitution: Standards and Funding

Jones, Erica P.
African Arts , Volume 54 (1): 1 – Mar 1, 2021
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MIT Press
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© 2021 by the Regents of the University of California.
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0001-9933
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1937-2108
DOI
10.1162/afar_a_00561
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Abstract

the communities where African art objects paradigm for this undertaking. Any such or government officials, as determined by the originate helps to elucidate their meaning and consortium or task force would need to seek histories of each object. Any other associated significance. Therefore, such collaborations assistance from a wide range of experts in the costs—such as hiring translators, international should broach exhibitions and personnel field of African arts and, more importantly, shipping, conservation work prior to repatri- development. Engaging in collaborative exhi- outside of it. We need to draw on both suc- ation, knowledge sharing programs such as bitions with the potential of adding venues on cessful and unsuccessful cases of repatriation professional development sessions—would the continent will abate the concern with how for models, possibly looking to the Native also need to be taken into account. All of this to view shows and works from great distances. American Grave Protection and Repatriation is too important to do unsatisfactorily, and we er Th e is also a need for active participation Act (NAGPRA), which has limited parallels need to estimate the costs to do it right. in initiatives like the Digital Benin Project but could still serve as a framework. We also e s Th ource of this funding is a bigger and the Benin Dialogue Group (Museum am need to consult a wide range of thinkers, such question. Once we have an idea of the funds Rothenbaum 2020). These initiatives are all as African museum professionals, members required, museums will have stronger cases underpinned by the goal of collaborating with of African stakeholder groups in the diaspora, when going to resources such as the Institute the cultures involved to reach workable solu- American and European Africanist museum of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to tions of the repatriation conversation. The cre- professionals, museum specialists from other seek grants that would allow digitization and ation of programs that facilitate the exchange fields who have been repatriating objects for organization to properly publicize collections. of personnel will allow African counterparts to decades, as well as cultural property lawyers, Until we identify a procedure for identifying obtain valid training in American institutions. UNESCO employees, and state department potential restitutions and steady, dedicated This will oer t ff hem the necessary tools to deal personnel who can provide insight into the lines of funding for this lengthy process, the with cultural patrimony whenever they come complexities of exchanges between American steps of repatriation will be slow, piecemeal, into contact with it. institutions and foreign nations. This could be and largely left in the hands of curators and a moment for a pilot program consisting of the institutions that employ them, which is, in References cited a small number of museums, each dedicated my opinion, not necessarily where the power de Young Museum. 2020. “Reflecting on the Restitu- to returning a similar body of objects, with should entirely reside in these matters. tion of Art from the Benin Kingdom in the Wake of Sarr-Savoy Report.” February 21. https://deyoung.famsf. these partner institutions together shouldering Notes org/calendar/reflecting-restitution-art-benin-king- the first steps of drain ft g guidelines for best 1 Th e Cultural Property Advisory Committee, part of dom-wake-sarr-savoy-report practices. the Federal Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, works to enforce the United States’ obligation to the Museum am Rothenbaum. 2020. “Digital Benin: Recon- It would also be imperative to understand 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting necting Royal Art Treasures.” https://digitalbenin.org/ the cost of accomplishing this. We have seen and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Raicovich, Laura. 2019. “One Museum’s Complicated Ownership of Cultural Property, but they do not have in the age of COVID-19 that most museum a specific mandate to promote the return of illegally Attempt to Repatriate a ‘Benin Bronze’.” Hyperalle - r 3 budgets are balancing on a knife’s edge. obtained objects from Africa prior to 1970. gic , June 24. https://hyperallergic.com/506634/be- e det Th ailed work of provenance research is 2 Th e Association of Art Museum Directors nin-bronze-head-interview/ (AAMD) has reached out to museum directors for this complex and time consuming. Many cura- Sarr, Felwine, and Bénédicte Savoy. 2018. e Th Restitution purpose, but this inquiry has yet to produce guidelines tors have focused their efforts on researching and there are no mentions of this on the AAMD website of African Cultural Heritage. Toward a New Relatio- objects looted in the Siege on Benin —not as of August 2020. nal Ethics, trans. Drew S. Burk. Paris: Ministère de la 3 According to a July 22, 2020 article posted by the culture. only because it is a well-documented, clear-cut American Alliance of Museums (AAM), one-third of case of objects taken without consent, but also all museums may close as a result of COVID-19 (AAM, 2020). Furthermore, layoffs and furloughs have been due to how well documented their sales have IMPERATIVES OF RESTITUTION: enacted by many institutions large and small, such at STANDARDS AND FUNDING been, which makes provenance easier to trace. the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Metropolitan Robust documentation is not the norm for Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Erica P. Jones, Associate Curator of African Walker Art Center, to name only a few. most stolen art from this period, and proper Arts, Fowler Museum at UCLA 4 A brief survey of twenty-five articles published in research for most objects requires much more 2019 about the repatriation of African arts showed that e co Th mplex nature of repatriation and restitu- time, funding, and travel to either archives or sixteen of the twenty-five directly referenced objects tion of African arts has been clearly articulated taken in the Siege on Benin as a primary example of arts communities where the objects were originally that should be restituted. by First Word author Amanda M. Maples, made. At the Fowler Museum, we are fortunate and other recent First Word authors (Roberts to have received an Andrew W. Mellon grant References cited 2019; Ndiaye 2019), as well as participants in American Alliance of Museums. 2020. “United States allowing us to hire additional researchers May Lose One-third of All Museums, New Survey the various conferences held over the past two and to do in-depth provenance research on a Shows.” [Press Release]. July 22. https://www.aam-us. years on the topic. As such, I will restrict my subset of our African arts collection. But this org/2020/07/22/united-states-may-lose-one-third-of- comments to some of the issues raised by my grant only supports three years of research, all-museums-new-survey-shows/ provenance research on the Fowler Museum’s and it will be impossible to maintain that level Ndiaye, El Hadji Malick, and John Warne Monroe. 2019. collection. Based on my limited experience, we of activity when the grant period ends. “Musée, colonisation, et restitution”/“Restitution and are desperately in need of two vital resources: the Logic of the Postcolonial Nation-State” [First Word]. At this point, it is difficult to know just how a set of guidelines or best practices and the African Arts 52 (3): 1–6. much it will cost museums to properly prepare funding to implement them. themselves to field repatriation requests, Roberts, Allen F. 2019. “Is Repatriation Inevitable?” Without a national mandate to restitute [First Word]. African Arts 52 (1): 1-7. and, of course, this amount will vary among stolen African arts, American institutions institutions depending on the size of their are left to determine a process on their own. collections. Some anticipated costs include Many of the African arts curators I know are digitizing entire collections, making that digi- engaged in some form of provenance research, tized collection data widely available, travel to and it makes little sense for each of us to create and from Africa for curators and stakeholder separate approaches to outreach, communi- communities, engaging legal advisors, and cation, and resolution (be that repatriation or finding and involving new teams of stakehold- not). American-based curators at institutions ers, which could include individuals, commu- with African arts collections should convene nity representatives, museum professionals, a consortium to discuss and develop a shared 8 african arts SPRING 2021 VOL. 54, NO. 1

Journal

African Arts – MIT Press

Published: Mar 1, 2021

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