The reopening of Belgium’s Africa Museum, a former colonial institution holding one of the world’s largest collections of African art, has led to calls by the Democratic Republic of the Congo for many of its artefacts to be repatriated. Belgium’s Africa Museum is located in Tervuren, on the outskirts of Brussels, near the site where a “human zoo” of 267 Congolese men, women and children was staged on the orders of King Leopold in 1897. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Busts on display at the Africa Museum in Tervuren. Initially called the Museum of the Congo and more recently known as the Royal Museum for Central Africa, the newly renamed Africa Museum has been radically remodelled after nearly a century in which its permanent exhibition barely changed. How do we define what was legally acquired and what was not legally acquired?”He added: “Initially they talked about military occupation, military raids and plundering and all the objects coming from that.

Source: The Guardian December 08, 2018 05:00 UTC