From John Oliver comes a comic take on a serious subject–how Western museums have often built their collections, especially in antiquities, through looting art from colonized nations. In this 34 minute episode, Oliver discusses “some of the world’s most prestigious museums, why they contain so many stolen goods, [and] the market that continues to illegally trade antiquities.” It’s one of the latest episodes from HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
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Boy, this website never gets tired of playing revisionist history. What do you think would have happened had the British, or the French, or any of the great colonial powers had not secured these artifacts? Do you think they would have ever seen the light of day? It amazes me, it really does, how self hating people have become. The British in particular have given the world so many gifts, it would be nearly impossible to document them all. Were they saints? Please. But to discount an entire culture, due to the new norms that decree that any culture that doesn’t bow to the altar of Woke-ism and self flagellation is insane. But, I’m not surprised. That’s life in 2022. I’ll wait for my comment to be deleted now!
If another culture chooses (or not) to offer their artifacts on display for the rest of the world to absorb…THAT IS THE BUSINESS OF THAT OTHER CULTURE. What it is NOT…is the right of the British, or the French, or any euro-centric country to employ arbitrary countenance as to whether or not looting OTHER cultures’ property is morally justified.
Play the victim “role” all you want (which, by the way, you wear absurdly badly given any “non-revisionist” appreciation of Euro-centric culture)…but the facts on the ground are intrinsically simple:
Britain, among other Euro-centric countries, STOLE property from other cultures…then have the audacity to actually throw the theft right in the face of the cultures from which they stole them by placing them Museums FAR REMOVED from their culture of origin.
I’m convinced I can take better care of every piece of property or asset you possess — your home, your car, your bank accounts…everything; ergo, seems to me I have every right to exercise privilege to TAKE THEM from you.