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The British Museum is full of stolen artifacts

18 videos recommended on HN
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1 HN user recommended this explainer1 month2020–2022 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited as an accessible overview of the looted-artifacts debate around the British Museum.

A Vox explainer on how many of the British Museum's treasures were taken during British imperial rule, focusing on the Benin Bronzes and requests for their return.

“I enjoyed this Vox video about how the British Museum holds many artifacts that were stolen.” (HN, 2022)

1 recommendations · 2 citations · Explainers

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@bantunes Aug 2020 Cites it
on HN thread Not all the facts fit the anti-colonialist narrative
I recently heard about Benin and the British "punitive expedition" that looted the country in a Vox video, of all things, about the world's largest open crime scene - the British Museum [this video]
Vox explainer on British Museum holding looted artifacts, including Benin
@dkd903 Aug 2021 Cites it
on HN thread The British Library puts 1M newspaper pages online for free
Read more
This is great. When is the British Museum returning all its 1000s of stolen artefacts to their rightful owners? Vox: The British Museum is full of stolen artifacts - [this video] Here is a snippet from: Dalrymple, William. The Anarchy (p. 21). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition. "The last hereditary Welsh prince, the memorably named Owain Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, built Powis Castle as a craggy fort in the thirteenth century; the estate was his reward for abandoning Wales to the rule of the English monarchy. But its most spectacular treasures date from a much later period of English conquest and appropriation. For Powis is simply awash with loot from India, room after room of imperial plunder, extracted by the East India Company (EIC) in the eighteenth century. There are more Mughal artefacts stacked in this private house in the Welsh countryside than are on display in any one place in India – even the National Museum in Delhi."
Cited alongside a quote on imperial loot as evidence of stolen artefacts

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