The Brutish Museums

'Timely' -- Nature 'Unsparing ... especially timely ... his book invites readers to help break the impasse by joining the movement for restitution.' -- CNN 'A masterful condemnation and inspiring call to action' -- Los Angeles Review of Books 'A powerful call for western museums to return the objects looted in the violent days of empire' -- Guardian 'Dan, your words brought tears to my eyes. I salute you' -- MC Hammer 'Destined to become an essential text' -- Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times 'A real game-changer' -- Fiammetta Rocco, The Economist 'A startling act of conscience. An important book which could overturn what people have felt about British history, empire, civilisation, Africa, and African art. It is with books like this that cultures are saved, by beginning truthfully to face the suppressed and brutal past. It has fired a powerful shot into the debate about cultural restitution. You will never see many European museums in the same way again. Books like this give one hope that a new future is possible.' -- Ben Okri, poet and writer 'In his passionate, personal, and, yes, political account, Dan Hicks transforms our understanding of the looting of Benin. This book shows why being against violence now more than ever means repatriating stolen royal and sacred objects and restoring stolen memories' -- Nicholas Mirzoeff, Professor in the Department of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University 'Unflinching, elegantly written and passionately argued, this is a call to action' -- Benedicte Savoy, Professor of Art History at Technische University 'An epiphanic book for many generations to come' -- Victor Ehikhamenor, visual artist and writer 'The book is a vital call to action: part historical investigation, part manifesto, demanding the reader do away with the existing "brutish museums" of the title and find a new way for them to exist' -- Charlotte Lydia Riley, Guardian 'If you care about museums and the world, read this book' -- New York Times 'Best Art Books' 2020

Dan Hicks FSA is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. He was awarded the 2017 Rivers Memorial Medal by the Royal Anthropological Institute, and was Visiting Professorat the musee du quai Branly Jacques-Chirac in Paris in 2017-18. Dan has published eight books including The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeology (CUP, 2006).

Preface 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. Necrography 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 One: Provisional List of the Worldwide Locations Of Benin Plaques Looted in 1897 Appendix Two: Sources of Benin Objects in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford (the 'first collection' Appendix Three: Sources of Benin Objects in the former Pitt-Rivers Museum, Farnham ('the second collection') Appendix Four: Current Location of Benin Objects previously in the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Farnham (the 'Second Collection') Appendix Five: A Provisional List of Museums, Galleries and Collections that May Currently Hold Objects Looted from Benin City in 1897. References