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.
A 6 meter tall Ned Kelly stands on the main street of Glenrowan, Victoria.
Shutterstock
The Victorian Supreme Court has determined the descendants of Ned Kelly’s family are not a distinctive cultural group with the right to protections of their ‘intangible cultural heritage’.
One of the exhibits of notable Black people on display at International African American Museum.
courtesy of v2com/International African American Museum
The new museum opened at a time when the teaching of Black history is under attack by conservative politicians.
‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ comes out in theatres on June 30. The fifth in a series over 42 years, many of its originating ideas are taken from 19th-century racist archaeology. Will this iteration be different?
(Walt Disney Pictures)
The final Indiana Jones movie is coming out June 30. The fifth in a series over 42 years, many of its ideas are taken from 19th-century orientalist and racist archaeology.
Digitizing plants preserved in the herbarium at La Sapienza University in Rome.
Mimmo Frassineti/AGF/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The colonial era profoundly shaped natural history museums and collections. Herbaria, which are scientists’ main source of plant specimens from around the world, are no exception.
Record numbers of visitors are flocking to blockbuster exhibitions. Behind all the excitement, there are difficult questions over how to address their carbon footprint.
Human evolution is typically depicted with a progressive whitening of the skin, despite a lack of evidence to support it.
Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov/Wikimedia Commons
From Aristotle to Darwin, inaccurate and biased narratives in science not only reproduce these biases in future generations but also perpetuate the discrimination they are used to justify.
Wheatfield with Crows by Vincent van Gogh (1890).
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam / Vincent van Gogh Foundation
Museums have pushed the narrative of Vincent van Gogh as a ‘tortured genius’ for decades, but in its 50th year the Van Gogh Museum is questioning this approach.
The Ciutat de la Justícia by David Chipperfield Architects, in Barcelona, Spain.
Agefotostock/Alamy
Chipperfield is not interested in creating something iconic or instantly recognisable as his. Instead, he sees architecture as a service, a vehicle for civic and public good.
Large painting of a crocodile attributed to Majumbu along with two child hand stencils.
Photograph courtesy of the Melbourne Museum, object 019930, object size 2.94m by 1.03m