The Brutish Museums , livre audio

New York Times 'Best Art Books' 2020
'Essential' – Sunday Times
'Brilliantly enraged' - New York Review of Books
'A real game-changer'– Economist

Walk 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. 

This audiobook edition, beautifully narrated by actor Ben Onwukwe, is a perfect choice for learning on the go.List of Plates Preface Preface to the Paperback Edition 1. The Gun That Shoots Twice 2. A Theory of Taking 3. Necrography 4. White Projection 5. World War Zero 6. Corporate-Militarist Colonialism 7. War on Terror 8. The Benin-Niger-Soudan Expedition 9. The Sacking of Benin City 10. Democide 11. Iconoclasm 12. Looting 13. Necrology 14. ‘The Museum of Weapons, etc.’ 15. Chronopolitics 16. A Declaration of War 17. A Negative Moment 18. Ten Thousand Unfinished Events Afterword: A Decade of Returns Appendix 1: Provisional List of the Worldwide Locations Of Benin Plaques Looted in 1897 Appendix 2: Provenance of Benin Objects in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford (the ‘First Collection’) Appendix 3: Sources of Benin Objects in the Former Pitt-Rivers Museum, Farnham (the ‘Second Collection’) Appendix 4: Current Location of Benin Objects Previously in the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Farnham (the ‘Second Collection’) Appendix 5: A Provisional List of Museums, Galleries and Collections that May Currently Hold Objects Looted from Benin City in 1897 Notes References Index