Museums are purging their collections of looted treasures. Can they also get something in return? And what does it mean to be a museum in the 21st century? (Part 3 of an updated series originally published in 2023.)

• SOURCES:
  • Patricia Allan, museum consultant, former curator of world cultures for the Glasgow Museums.
  • Andrea Bayer, deputy director for collections and administration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
  • Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
  • Victor Ehikhamenor, Nigerian writer and artist.
  • Patty Gerstenblith, professor emeritus of law at DePaul University College of Law.
  • Tom Wilkening, professor of economics at the University of Melbourne.

• RESOURCES:
  • "After Seizures, the Met Sets a Plan to Scour Collections for Looted Art," by Robin Pogrebin and Graham Bowley (The New York Times, 2023).
  • "Nigeria Benin Bronzes: Buhari Declaration 'Blindsides' Museum Officials," by Barnaby Phillips (B.B.C., 2023).
  • "Shared Stewardship and Ethical Returns Policy," by the Smithsonian Ethical Returns Working Group (2022).
  • "Protecting Antiquities: A Role for Long-Term Leases?" by Michael Kremer and Tom Wilkening (Working Paper, 2015).

• EXTRAS:
  • “Stealing Art Is Easy. Giving It Back Is Hard,” series by Freakonomics Radio (2023).

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The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan talks about confidence, luck, and why it takes 35 drafts to get to the finish line.

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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 originally published in 2023.)

• SOURCES:
  • Matthew Bogdanos, assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit.
  • Nicholas Cullinan, director of the British Museum.
  • Victor Ehikhamenor, Nigerian writer and artist.
  • David Frum, staff writer at The Atlantic.
  • Dan Hicks, professor of contemporary archaeology at the University of Oxford and curator of world archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum.
  • Bénédicte Savoy, professor of art history at the Technical University in Berlin.

• RESOURCES:
  • "These Looted Treasures Are Home. What Now?," by Alex Marshall (New York Times, 2025).
  • "France's Long-Awaited Restitution Policy Is Finally Here," by Vincent Noce (The Art Newspaper, 2023).
  • Africa’s Struggle for Its Art: History of a Postcolonial Defeat, by Bénédicte Savoy (2022).
  • "Who Benefits When Western Museums Return Looted Art?" by David Frum (The Atlantic, 2022).
  • "Museums in England and Wales to Gain Powers to Dispose of Objects on Moral Grounds," by Dalya Alberge (The Guardian, 2022).
  • The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution, by Dan Hicks (2020).
  • "The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage. Toward a New Relational Ethics," by Bénédicte Savoy and Felwine Sarr (2018).

• EXTRAS:
  • "Can a Museum Be the Conscience of a Nation?," by Freakonomics Radio (2025).
  • "The Hidden Side of the Art Market," by Freakonomics Radio (2021).

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