Is a Museum Just a Trophy Case? (Update)

About this episode

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 Ret