Is a Museum Just a Trophy Case? (Update)

The world’s great museums are full of art and artifacts that were plundered during an era when plunder was the norm. Now there’s a push to return these works to their rightful owners. Sounds simple, right? It's not. (Part 2 of an updated series (freakonomics.com/podcast-tag/stealing-art-is-e…) originally published in 2023.)

• SOURCES:

• Matthew Bogdanos (neh.gov/about/awards/national-humanities-medal…), assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit.

• Nicholas Cullinan (britishmuseum.org/sites/default/files/2024-03/…), director of the British Museum.

• Victor Ehikhamenor (victorehi.com), Nigerian writer and artist.

• David Frum (theatlantic.com/author/david-frum), staff writer at The Atlantic.

• Dan Hicks (prm.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-dan-hicks), professor of contemporary archaeology at the University of Oxford and curator of world archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum.

• Bénédicte Savoy (tu.berlin/kuk/ueber-uns/team/leitung/prof-dr-b…), professor of art history at the Technical University in Berlin.

• RESOURCES:

• "These Looted Treasures Are Home. What Now? (nytimes.com/2025/12/09/arts/design/benin-bronz…)," by Alex Marshall (New York Times, 2025).

• "France's Long-Awaited Restitution Policy Is Finally Here (theartnewspaper.com/2023/04/26/france-long-awa…)," by Vincent Noce (The Art Newspaper, 2023).

• Africa’s Struggle for Its Art: History of a Postcolonial Defeat (amzn.to/3pvG5OY), by Bénédicte Savoy (2022).

• "Who Benefits When Western Museums Return Looted Art? (theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/10/benin…)" by David Frum (The Atlantic, 2022).

• "Museums in England and Wales to Gain Powers to Dispose of Objects on Moral Grounds (theguardian.com/culture/2022/sep/25/museums-en…)," by Dalya Alberge (The Guardian, 2022).

• The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution (amzn.to/42HCdbW), by Dan Hicks (2020).

• "The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage. Toward a New Relational Ethics (about-africa.de/images/sonstiges/2018/sarr_sav…)," by Bénédicte Savoy and Felwine Sarr (2018).

• EXTRAS:

• "Can a Museum Be the Conscience of a Nation? (freakonomics.com/podcast/can-a-museum-be-the-c…)," by Freakonomics Radio (2025).

• "The Hidden Side of the Art Market (freakonomics.com/podcast-tag/the-hidden-side-o…)," by Freakonomics Radio (2021).

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