{"product_id":"9780745346229","title":"The Brutish Museums : The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution by Dan Hicks","description":"New York Times 'Best Art Books' 2020'Essential' - Sunday Times'Brilliantly enraged' - New York Review of Books'A real game-changer'- EconomistWalk into any Western museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire. They sit behind plate glass: dignified, tastefully lit. Accompanying pieces of card offer a name, date and place of origin. They do not mention that the objects are all stolen.   Few artefacts embody this history of rapacious and extractive colonialism better than the Benin Bronzes - a collection of thousands of metal plaques and sculptures depicting the history of the Royal Court of the Obas of Benin City, Nigeria. Pillaged during a British naval attack in 1897, the loot was passed on to Queen Victoria, the British Museum and countless private collections.   The Brutish Museums?sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums. Since its first publication, museums across the western world have begun to return their Bronzes to Nigeria, heralding a new era in the way we understand the collections?of empire we once took for granted.\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56296662073717,"sku":"9780745346229","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780745346229.jpg?v=1762772601","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/9780745346229","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}