Installation view of the 2024 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces® Pharaoh, a collaboration between the British Museum and the NGV, on display from June 14 – October 6 2024 at NGV International, Melbourne.
Photo: Sean Fennessy
Many exhibitions of ancient Egyptian art have been held in Australia. Pharaoh, at the National Gallery of Victoria, is outstanding for its scope, scale and presentation.
The Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum.
EWY Media/Shutterstock
The British Museum is celebrating recovered items in its new exhibition, but it continues to refuse to return historically looted items in its own collection to countries of origin.
(Left to right) A Roman shield, a copper alloy Roman legionary helmet, an iron sword with gilded bronze scabbard, a suit of parade armour made from crocodile skin and a bronze head depicting the first Roman emperor, Augustus.
Yale University Art Gallery/British Museum
From ill-thought renovation schemes to the latest row over the repatriation of the Parthenon marbles, this is not the first time the British Museum reckons with a custodianship crisis.
Lady Li, unknown artist, circa 1876.
Harp Ming / British Museum
The British Museum appears close to a decision on returning the Elgin marbles – here’s how it might navigate the legal challenges.
This wooden dish from Broome, pre-1892, was made by Yawuru people, collected by police and later presented by the Commissioner of Police, Colonel Phillips, to the WA Museum.
Courtesy of the WA museum
A spear-thrower, a shell, a bowl, a vase, a bucket. Five very different items tell us much about the history of collecting, the role of Indigenous experts and the shadow of colonial violence.
An ivory ban in the US had a series of unintended consequences.
Aboriginal elder Major Sumner sits outside Liverpool’s World Museum with a box containing the skull of an Australian indigenous person, taken from Australia between 1902 and 1904.
Phil Noble/Reuters
The question of repatriating objects is clearly more complex than returning human remains. It needs more debate, and more creative interventions to move beyond the current impasse.