The latest episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver tackled a variety of topics, as the show usually does before delving into its main segment which tackled the colonialist past and unethical present-day practices of British Museums. While it may often feel like the show’s team selects very random themes and topics, today's main segment touches on a topic that has seen a resurgence in popular discourse. The story behind how museums acquire their antiquities is needlessly complex and undeniably rooted in colonialism.
Before the main story, John Oliver also discussed the new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss. The politician has been in office for barely a month, and already has a huge crisis on her hands. After facing backlash for her response to the UK's energy crisis, the politician, well, disappeared. The PM spent days away from public appearances, and that was perceived as a bad move during such a critical moment, which angered even members of her own party.
The episode's main story was also directly related to British people. Not that unethical museum practices and works of art on display are exclusive to the United Kingdom, but Last Week Tonight singled out The British Museum to illustrate a general problem that encompasses a huge number of occidental exhibits. As recent reports expose, and even movies like Marvel's Black Panther have denounced the museum Art world as rooted in colonialism – meaning that, whenever European empires colonized other countries, the art (and culture, by extension) was taken as loot with no regard to how this would impact the local society’s development.
.jpeg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
The core of the issue boils down to common sense; of course, all those precious and cultural works of art were stolen in a wholly different time, a period in which monarchs saw it as their right to just take whatever they wanted from colonized countries. Now, however, museums are faced with pressure to return items that tell the History of African countries – Nigeria is singled out with the impressive Benin Bronzes, which carried a significant amount of history for the people and culture. Common sense dictates that such items be returned since they shouldn't even have left their countries of origin in the first place.
Of course, there are institutions that are willing to return valuable items to their original owners, but it’s a slow process that comes with its share of resistance. What makes matters worse is that a good number of items of priceless value are not even on display: They have been stacked up in boxes, and even in the 21st century there are still instances of works of art being acquired through shady means by institutions that are supposed to be serious and law-abiding – as Kim Kardashian inadvertently showcased.
You can watch the whole main segment below: