ARTchivist's Notebook: Looting in metadata
Looting in metadata
Representing the provenance of stolen items
It's no longer surprising to hear how the treasures in the world's museums were acquired through pillaging, theft or illegal export. Hyperallergic's recent article about looted Cambodian antiquities in the collections of The Met and the British Museum is just the latest in a long string of examples. These Khmer Dynasty artifacts were stolen, removed from their original cultural and sacred contexts, and in some cases partially destroyed or damaged. (The Buddha's head that illustrates Hyperallergic's story was most likely severed from its body in order to be "collected.")
In my work designing the metadata schema and taxonomy for Curationist.org, an online aggregator of Open Access cultural heritage content, we've discussed how such troubling provenance data could be more accurately represented. Here's a slide we presented at MozFest in March 2021 critiquing the way one of the Benin Bronzes, a hotly contested group of objects stolen from Benin (present-day Nigeria), was represented on The Met's online Open Access site.
At the time of the panel the "Provenance" said "Court of Benin until 1897." 1897 was the year of the "Benin Expedition" in which British troops captured the city of Benin, toppled its government, and absorbed it into the British colony of Nigeria. But the metadata didn't say anything about this horrific invasion or that the object was stolen.
This is what it says now (screenshot taken on October 5, 2021):
The record doesn't go so far as to say the object was "stolen" or "looted," but it does at least acknowledge that it was "taken" during a military occupation. This is an improvement and a big step toward accountability for objects The Met was able to collect because they were inappropriately removed from their original contexts. Although the Benin Bronzes have been much discussed in the press, this metadata change reflects an institution finally taking responsibility for its ill-gotten gains.
This small shift makes a difference for the museum, which has taken a step toward more a honest and transparent representation of its holdings and history. It also makes a difference for us, the viewers, who can better understand what we're looking at, how it came to be there, and our own privilege and complicity in consuming it. And most importantly, it might make a big difference for the Nigerian people: acknowledgment of theft is the first step toward repatriation.
Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or questions about this issue, please feel free to get in touch. Or follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter @SharonMizota.
ARTchivist's Notebook is an occasional newsletter musing on the intersection of archives, art, and social justice by me, Sharon Mizota, DEI metadata consultant and art writer.
I help museums, archives, libraries, and websites transform and share their metadata to achieve greater diversity, equity, and inclusion. Contact me to discuss your metadata project today.