ISTANBUL (TRT World) -- Western countries have assumed themselves the custodians and narrators of the global human experience with little to no mention of the colonial roots of the institution.
When the British Museum opened in 1753, it had a collection of 71,000 items. Over the next 250 years, its collection expanded rapidly — thanks to colonization — and grew so large that the museum opened several sub-branches, and now houses some eight million objects, including some of the world’s most famous (and disputed) pieces, from the Elgin Marbles of Greece to the Rosetta Stone of Egypt.
The Louvre opened in Paris in 1793 with 537 paintings, the majority of which were looted from the bourgeoisie and the Church as part of the First French Revolution. It then also expanded rapidly thanks to the military campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte.
As other museums opened across Europe under the global expansion of colonialism, the means of obtaining art, objects, artifacts stolen from archaeological excavations, places of historical, or religious significance, and rare and invaluable manuscripts — and even human remains — had been established, and a precedent was firmly set: take what you can, by any means necessary.
These collections served as evidence of European power and reach and captivated audiences by showcasing the mysteriousness and strangeness of the “dark and uncivilized natives” found in distant lands. Books written in Arabic, Persian or Turkish — especially those relating to Islam — might have been studied for the purposes of polemics, but many sat gathering dust in libraries as few could translate them.
The British Museum today identifies itself as being “unique in bringing together under one roof the cultures of the world, spanning continents and oceans.”
“No other museum is responsible for collections of the same depth and breadth, beauty and significance,” it says — a bold statement that neglects the historical context in which it was able to ‘gather’ these cultures.
However, there is growing awareness in recent years around the problem of weak, or in some cases, no provenance available for art and objects that sit in Western museums. Activists, some who trace their roots to once-colonized countries, have initiated campaigns to seek the return of looted artifacts, and in some cases, these demands have reached a state level.