The Brutish Museums cover art

The Brutish Museums

The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Brutish Museums

By: Dan Hicks
Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

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.

©2020 Dan Hicks (P)2022 Pluto Press Art Library & Museum Studies Politics & Government Social Sciences Royalty Africa Imperialism Colonial Period Middle Ages Latin American

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Whole Picture cover art
Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning cover art
Black and British cover art
Trans cover art
Children of Ash and Elm cover art
African History cover art
Steeple Chasing cover art
Culture and Imperialism cover art
The Invention of China cover art
In Defense of German Colonialism cover art
History of Mexico cover art
Past Mistakes cover art
The Fall of Rome cover art
Germany: Memories of a Nation cover art
The Invention of Sicily cover art
Germany cover art

Critic reviews

"A real game-changer." (The Economist)

"If you care about museums and the world, read this book." (New York Times 'Best Art Books' 2020)

"Hicks’s urgent, lucid, and brilliantly enraged book feels like a long-awaited treatise on justice." (Coco Fusco, New York Review of Books)
All stars
Most relevant
As a person who considers themselves relatively well informed of past colonial wrongdoings, I am shocked at my dismal ignorance of the very specific ultraviolence our forbears committed in Benin. Thank you Dr Hicks for these teachings and the inspiring work toward rectifying some of the dreadful injustice.
The disparity of wealth.. we have not earned but taken it, and we do not deserve it. Repatriation of ancestors and Reparations for survivors. It is the only way forward and the only way to attempt to heal these grievous wounds.

Truth and Clarity

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.