The British Museum Should Give Everything Back | Confluence

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]I don't know if you've got a British committee for the >> [laughter] >> repatriation of of Sri Lankan monuments.

[00:00:05]It's it's through the our organized committee, which has got not just academics on it, but several patrons who are extremely important in in culture and the arts, well-known faces like Victoria Hislop, for example. [music] I am all for repatriation wherever it can be proven that the object is going to be well looked after. I believe Parthenon Marbles are going to be better looked after in Greece, actually, than they are in Britain.

[00:00:30]And given a more prominent place culturally. This is all basically a legacy of British imperialism. And British imperialism in places like Southeast Asia looted, as we all know, not only wealth and and natural resources, but also priceless artifacts. What I would like to see is a is a non-judgmental sort of international exhibition called The British Empire and heritage, where we [music] all came together to talk about fascinating people like Browning. And there were a lot There were a lot of There were a lot of good people Some very good people in India from Scotland who saved some [music] of these artifacts. I want a complex, nuanced, but honest discussion to proceed decisions about repatriation of particular objects. I think Sri Lanka does have some I mean, we got back some of our artifacts [music] from the Netherlands Museum.

[00:01:30]Uh but again, they made sure that the conditions in our I mean, cuz with the with the humidity and the heat. Um so, and I think [music] that was the fair, but there we have a lot more to get back. I think that crucial to to to this is how important that artifact is modern identity. Your statue and the sculptures of the most [music] famous temple in the world are crucial to to to pride and and and national um self-definition and I think it's really sort of shocking. But I my I'm very optimistic about this. My children are in their 20s and they see this is absolutely obvious. Like there's been a generational shift. They are see it's absolutely obvious that the British Museum should be giving everything back [laughter] to to But will there be anything left in the museum? I don't care. They can make they can make AI reconstructions and son et lumiere and everybody will still want to go.