“The public historical debate in Germany was completely absorbed by consideration of the Nazi past and of the ramifications of division,” said Nicholas Thomas, director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge. “There has been much more discussion of empire in Britain, France and the Netherlands, where people in museums have thought much more about where collections have come from, and there is a deeper awareness of the sheer historical complexity.

”Many of the objects in the Prussian heritage foundation’s massive collection were gathered in a spirit of scientific inquiry as explorers brought objects back from around the globe to preserve them and learn from them, Professor Bredekamp said. But countless others, according to the critics, were seized by force, or given by people who had no choice. Human remains and sacred religious objects, which collections in Berlin contain, would hardly have been surrendered willingly, the critics point out.

“It is undisputed that the objects reached Berlin under unequal power relations and sometimes by force,” Viola König, a former director of the Ethnological Museum, wrote in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit.

Among the most prominent objects in the Prussian Foundation’s ethnological collection are several hundred sculptures, Benin bronzes (actually made of brass), created in an ancient kingdom that is now part of Nigeria and borders on the modern nation of Benin. They were purchased on the open market but only after they had been looted by British troops.

Mnyaka Sururu Mboro, a civil engineer, teacher and anticolonial activist in Berlin, wants the skulls of ancestors he says were executed by Germans in Tanzania returned to Africa.

In an interview, he said the collection contains thousands of disputed objects from Africa alone. “The shelves are totally full,” he said. “The people there are still in sorrow,” he added. “They have not buried their own people.”

Amid the backlash against the Forum, the biggest blow came last summer when Professor Savoy, an art historian, resigned from its advisory panel, announcing that she wanted to know “how much blood is dripping from a work of art” and comparing the museum to Chernobyl for the tendency of its leadership to erect a roof over its problems.

The Humboldt Forum had the potential to be a great intellectual spectacle that posed new questions, she said in an interview in her Berlin office. But, she added, the Forum is a deeply conservative project and its leadership represents an older generation that was incapable of addressing its problems. She criticized the museum establishment for dismissing the voices of anticolonial critics. “The museum has a light side and a dark side,” she said. “They want to show only the nice side. They want to keep it hidden. That is not healthy for a society.”

Professor Savoy has since become an adviser to President Emmanuel Macron of France, whose own steps at addressing his country’s colonial period have put Germany’s in the shade, according to many experts, and inflamed the European debate.

Signaling the shift during a visit to Burkina Faso last November, President Macron announced he wanted France to work rapidly toward the temporary or permanent restitution of African heritage to Africa. “African heritage,” he said, “cannot be a prisoner of European museums.”

The colonial debate that has at times seemed to overwhelm the Forum has prompted some action. There are plans to introduce new expert curatorial voices from countries where the objects originated, to get away from the idea that it presents a purely German take on the world. A specialist from Tanzania, for example, will be co-curator of an exhibition about that country.

There are plans for other joint ventures with Namibia, though critics wonder what influence outside experts will really have. Where there has been a claim for restitution, this will be noted on an object being displayed, Mr. Dorgerloh said.

Since the debate intensified, Ms. Grütters has encouraged a greater focus on colonialism. The German Lost Art Foundation, which traditionally investigates Nazi-looted art, announced it would widen its remit and give grants to museums for colonial provenance research.

The heritage foundation and its president, Hermann Parzinger, agree that the provenance of objects in the forum’s collections needs to be more fully researched, and some things should eventually be returned.

But he proposes a gradualist approach that requires first a broader European rethinking of the principles of restitution. “It makes sense to give some things back,” Professor Parzinger said in an interview. “But we should not say everything has to go back.” He added, “We have to see if we collected them in a legal way. History,” he said “is not just black or white. There are also gray areas.”

The heritage foundation returned nine artifacts it said had been taken from graves of indigenous communities in Alaska in the 1890s, and in August, several skulls and other human remains were given back to representatives from Namibia.

Professor Savoy said in August that the new willingness to admit even just the need for provenance research and consider restitution is important progress. Germany may now be starting to catch up with other countries, experts say. The gradual approach, however, does not satisfy those who demand a greater admission of culpability in colonial crimes, a fuller inventory of colonial era artifacts and a more rapid return of objects.

The right-wing party Alternative for Germany has also finally entered the debate, asking questions in the German Parliament about the cost of provenance research, raising fears among the Forum’s critics that the party could hinder the return of objects.

Those on the anticolonial side continue to regard the forum as reflecting an affliction of Germany’s history. In February, the angry protesters marched from what they consider one historical sore to another — from the site of the 1880s conference convened by Otto von Bismarck to coordinate claims on central Africa to the grassy space in front of the forum.

Their anger was palpable, but nevertheless many here welcome the debate that encompasses the Forum.“Without the Humboldt Forum” said Friedrich von Bose, a curator in the new museum beside the Spree, “the debate would not be” where it is today.

Source : New York Times Oct,14 2018