We went to Egypt some years ago went around the old museum .
It was fantastic straight out of ‘The Mummy’ .
We used to have a member on here who spent a lot of time studying Egyptian stuff as a hobby IIRC. Wonder what happened to him.
That would be fair. Sometimes the originals are less available than the copies, I understand most dinosaur skeletons on display in museums are actually copies of the original fossils. No one seems to worry about that.
There is an “Age of Fishes” museum at Canowindra which houses some original rocks from the Devonian period - before the time of man or the dinosaurs, the casts of these rocks actually make more sense to the viewer than the originals as they are the impressions left by the fishes (a bit like the difference between viewing a negative and the resultant photo).
BTW it was a museum I thought would be so boring that I avoided it for decades when I finally took a visitor It was absolutely fascinating.
Nothing to do with the topic though.
I thought this thread was an attack on a scarf
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My grandmother had a stole made from dead foxes with the tails as adornments but this is not it.
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Exactly, and somebody might steal them.
You miss the point lol … tearing down statues is counterproductive. If a statue remained and was taught about in the correct text then history would be straightforward. There’s no glory in a reviled figure but the marker that was placed to remember them by is still there and generations beyond us will see that statue and wonder who this person was and learn their shameful story. Remove the statue and unless it’s taught in school then that person disappears from our history with all their horrible deeds .
There are generations of people growing up that had no idea what Nazis were about until the words started being bandied about by putin and Zelenskyy
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Funnily enough, not funny though, I never mentioned statues - either their retention or their removal. Although, now you mention statues, I do see the case for de-glorifying some historic figures. There are a small number of people who had statues made of them and that statue placed in such a way as to glorify that person. If that individual is, on closer examination, not worthy of such celebration then surely re-positioning the statue and replacing it does make sense. The original statue can be popped into a museum with a note of explanation.
You only cite one option of what some want to do with celebratory statues of people not worthy of celebration - destroy the statue. I suggest re-position and replace (with better art). We both agree that explanation and historic insight would be good.
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I missed the latest episode of this program but I will catch up with it on iView. It wasn’t anything to do with statues though.
I think it was about something Australian troops brought home after WWI but am not sure.
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I agree but cancel culture wants to remove these things completely which is pointless and removes the lesson learned from the episode
Good that we agree on the statues. However I’m not so keen on the use of the term ‘cancel culture’. My issue is that the term has been adopted by the US right wing to give negative connotation to anyone criticizing bad (racist, bullying, etc) behaviour. I myself do not know who is cancel culture - who do you mean when you refer to it? If its not an entity or group then is just certain actions or statements? It is certainly not a known movement, is it?
This evening’s program was about an object in the Art Gallery of NSW. A bronze Buddha which was taken from China during the Boxer Rebellion found in the rubble of a palace. I can’t find a picture of it but it is about 3/4 life size so it is not small.
It was donated to the art gallery in 1905 by a sea captain who brought it home from China.
Interesting it qualifies as an item stolen by the British because those fighting there did so on behalf of Britain but on their way home in 1901 they discovered that Australia had become an independent nation and they were now Australian. I hope you get the idea.
I finally found a picture
Titled:
Guardian figure - 1368-1644
And an article:
A UK museum’s signing over of its collection of objects looted from the Kingdom of Benin is “a really great day”, the head of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments has told the BBC. The Horniman Museum in south-east London is returning 72 items, including so-called Benin Bronzes, to Nigerian ownership - making it the first in the UK to officially take such action on this scale. The move adds to pressure on other museums and galleries as they grapple with the question of restitution.
Nick Merriman, director of the Horniman Museum, told the BBC that after a lot of research and consultation “there was no doubt they’d been looted - so there was a moral argument for their return”. However, he also said it was important to note that some museums are subject to legislation which prevents them from removing items from their collections, whereas others, which are charities such as the Horniman, are allowed to do so.
The Benin artworks were forcibly removed in 1897, in a large-scale British military expedition. British forces attacked and occupied the city of Benin, in what is now modern-day Nigeria. Soldiers burned and partially destroyed the Benin Royal Palace in 1897, looting and pillaging as they went. The Oba, or King, was forced into exile. At the time, the violent assault was claimed to be in retaliation for an attack on a British trade mission a month earlier. Now it is viewed by many in the wider context of Britain’s desire to break up a wealthy trading competitor and seize its assets. Benin was swallowed into Nigeria under the British Empire before Nigerian independence in 1960.
The kingdom is renowned for its complex and elaborately decorated collection of sculptures. These highly prized items were created over 600 years by specialist craftsmen working for the royal court in the kingdom’s capital. They include beautiful human and animal figures, ceremonial objects made from ivory and brass, and royal regalia. A series of plaques, known as the Benin Bronzes, which used to decorate the palace walls, are a key historic record of the court and kingdom.
During the British attack, many thousands of items of huge ceremonial and ritual value were stolen. Deemed official “spoils of war”, they were brought to the UK for sale or to be distributed to soldiers who had taken part in the raid. Museums in the UK, Europe and the US hold many of them. Some bid for the objects at auctions at the start of the 20th Century which were held to finance the expedition.
With 900 in its own collection, the British Museum has a sizeable proportion of the UK’s Benin Bronzes.
Germany signed a historic agreement with Nigeria this summer to transfer ownership from its museum collections of more than 1,000 items taken from Benin. France has also returned items.
Small steps … 
Are museums past their sell by dates ?
Full of stuff that came from colonial times and are not politically correct .
Is this the end for museums ?
there’s a lot more need repatriation than museum artificats like money value accrued over the centuries ; slave labor debts for example
You going to pay it then ?
negotitions continue …me I live in an Aboringinal community and pay every day? and you?
It ain’t my fault, just join the masses it is so simple.
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