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The Brutish Museums

The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution

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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

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

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