"The art world’s shame: why Britain must give its colonial booty back"

Jonathan Jones é jornalista, critico de arte e colunista habitual do jornal The Guardian desde 1999,  e também membro do juri do Turner Prize. Neste artigo, discute a relação entre o imperialismo e os museus britânicos, em particular, colocando questões relacionadas com a temática da conferência de abertura de António Pinto Ribeiro no 8º Encontro Ibero Americano dos Museus. Afirma o colunista do The Guardian:

Britain’s museums need to face up to a reality. Cultural imperialism is dead. They cannot any longer coldly keep hold of artistic treasures that were acquired in dubious circumstances a long time ago.

Amal Clooney may or may not be the best ambassador for the Greek government in its long campaign to return the Parthenon marbles to Greece. The celebrity support this cause has attracted ever since Lord Byron made it part of his romantic image in the early 19th century keeps it in the limelight, but also allows the British Museum, where the best sculptures from the 5th century BC Parthenon continue to be kept, to portray its critics as self-publicists.

Yet this is not the only case of a cultural treasure whose true ownership is disputed. The Benin sculptures in the British Museum, taken from the splendid west African city by a British “punitive raid” in 1897, are never going to rest easy in Bloomsbury. Meanwhile the international mood is shifting and will inevitably continue to shift towards a consensus that many wonders of the world are wrongfully hogged by western museums. 

Excerto do artigo The art world’s shame: why Britain must give its colonial booty back