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Reflections on the Alleged Legal Prohibition on Restitution by the British Museum

We often hear that the British Museum Act 1963 prohibits restitution/repatriation. Actually s.5(1)(c) of that act would allow it if “in the opinion of the Trustees the object is unfit to be retained in the collections of the Museum and can be disposed of without detriment to the interests of students” and the object hasn’t been gifted or bequeathed with conditions attached that would prevent repatriation. However, how the Trustees interpret “unfit” is addressed in the British Museum’s policy on de-accessioning objects, which currently states that the Trustees would only consider an object unfit if “it was no longer useful or relevant to the Museum’s purpose and if its retention would not be of benefit to scholars or the general public, whether for display or research or any other purpose for which the Museum is established.”


Museums are not institutions whose purposes and policies should be frozen in time. Their purposes, policies and practices should, and do, evolve.


When a museum client asks me to help them navigate a repatriation or restitution claim, I always look at any laws and/or museum policies in place that guide trustee/director decision-making. If the client decides its restitution or repatriation policy needs updating to reflect current museological approaches to the material in question, I can help the museum do that.




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