Speaking at Hay festival, BBC historian says museums are full of objects from countries that are now trading partnersBritish museums should send back thousands of objects taken from former colonies to help build bridges in the post-Brexit world, according to the historian David Olusoga. It’s just such a stark case of theft.”He said there were around 4,000 objects taken from the Nigerian palace that were national treasures. One of the most high-profile and perennially contentious cases involves the Parthenon marbles in the British Museum, taken from Greece by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century. Olusoga believes they should go back, as should objects taken from the summer palace in Beijing in 1860 by Elgin’s son. He was taken to the British Museum and made, “I should stress the word ‘made’”, to read books about African history and Benin.

Source: The Guardian May 27, 2018 19:50 UTC