Your editorial (27 December) is a good summary of some of the issues of cultural restitution facing museums in a post-colonial era.
Britain’s civic museum collections are extraordinarily rich, reflecting the country’s former military and industrial dominance. We are sitting on the loot of empire. But you omit one key group: these collections are publicly owned. Many of the communities to whom they belong are the descendants of people displaced by the colonial processes that removed cultural property. The public has a right to be engaged in interpreting these collections.
Regional museums would welcome investment in provenance research, but also funding for community engagement if our complex histories are to be told in a more inclusive way.
Dr Ellen McAdam
Director, Birmingham Museums Trust
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