Museums: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Blockchain technology is the answer to provenance. It authenticates.

I know I'm late here, but having a whole episode like this and bringing in Mount Rushmore for a gag, without including the lousy history behind Rushmore, you know, being on land illegally stolen from the Sioux, who had their own, deeply spiritual connection to the mountain... it's a pretty big miss from a usually excellent team.

THE PŪTEKETEKE WON!!!!!

The British museum: the worlds largest collection of other people's stuff

Everybody’s art is important….except that of the American South. They topple ours and melt them.

Wow, “it’s so difficult to give them back”. Then there’s the Smithsonian return program. Not perfect but it’s a “returning of 29 Benin artifacts from the museum of African art to the National Commissions for Museums and Monuments in NIGERIA” start.

as someone who's name is athens, i have to say that i think you should trust me with every artifact ever. trust.

You say thos about any colonialism land

“Solomon’s law”? Is that even a thing today? Sheesh! Other than a religious document, where is that written into law? Does Britain have separation of church & state? This is nuts!

Yea, but look at what isis did to all that stuff. Try not to be ignorant.

"If we said yes to one you'd soon find the British museum empty" Oh so every SINGLE thing in here has been stolen and shouldn't be here, and you are aware of that - sick

A whole movie was made on this subject, (I bet not just one), "The Woman in Gold". points it out exactly how bad museums got many of their items.

a lot of artifacts can't be returned because in order to preserve them in the last 50 to 100 years, museums thoroughly doused them in dangerous chemicals to prevent insect or pest damage, turning these priceless cultural artifacts into deadly items that really only can exist behind glass anymore. truly devastating to communities around the world that have had spiritual artifacts, historical clothing or accessories, and important pieces of their history and stories. they will never get them back unless they risk their lives

As the villain from Atlantis put it “if you returned every stolen artifact from a museum, you’d be left with an empty building”

I stole the loot and really love it therefore is mine. Ah, no.
Love this episode! So funny.

give us back our cool shit that is our culture and should give turistrs towards us it is fine for you to celebrate and studie it but stealing it why

If they go back the corrupt governments will smuggle them out and sell them again or just not care enough about them and destroy them

Brilliant ending! 👏🏾 👏🏾 👏🏾 👏🏾 🌹 👏🏾 🌹 👏🏾 🌹 😂😂😂

Plundered Skulls and Stolen sprits by Chip Colwell goes into some detail regarding Native American Artifacts and this very subject. Worth a read or a listen...I listened to the audio book for free form the local libary.

Such a good segment

Sorry John, but I have to disagree with you about a lot of this. Yes, illegally trafficking artifacts is extremely problematic, but at many points in history it was legitimately the only way to keep them from destruction by whatever power was occupying the places from which they originated at the time. This is still a huge problem in the most war torn of places. The ancient city of Nineveh was completely destroyed by Daesh/ISIS, as was Palmyra, for no other reason that the ruins and art there were un-Islamic. When the Parthenon's friezes were taken to the British Museum, Greece not only hadn't cared about their ancient heritage since Christianity took over 1,500 years ago but had actively destroyed it (see, for example, the Edict of Theodosius and other horrible orders given in Christianity's name). Once Greece did start to care a little bit about their most incredible works of art, they were unable to protect it from Ottomans and Venetians or anyone else who would loot and destroy it. If we have to remove priceless artifacts belong to ALL humanity from places that cannot protect them or actively want to destroy them, then I argue it is in all of humanity's interests to do so. If you cannot protect your most priceless of artifacts from destruction, then you do not deserve to have them.

It also has to do with the superiority complex of these mostly Christian plunderers. They disregarded the sanctity of many of these objects because they saw the people they took them from as ignorant pagans, so their objects aren't sacred, merely art to study. If people looted cathedrals and took crucifixes, paintings and images of saints to display far away as artistic curiosities for non-believers, how quickly do you think the Church would not only demand their return but sue for religious desecration and howl discrimination?

The earl lost his marbles

But if we empty western museums entirely of anything but European art it will give people incentive to demonize museums entirely. I worry that with this way of viewing things you could find a way to make libraries problematic as well.. A populace without the resources to feel or think freely, or to be inspired by the traditions of the world is not the kind of revolution we need.

I always found really ironic the colonial "Africa has no history" bs. Well no shit you can't seem to find it! You looted all the historic artifacts that were a part keeping that history! It's like a person who can't read claiming that a history book can't keep history because they can't read the book.

As an Ashmole I have long dreamt of going into the Ashmolean museum and demanding they give the stuff back.

Wonderful show, but you missed a sure thing by not having the theme from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" playing in the background.

None of this was stolen. Countries were conquered and to the victor goes the spoils.

I always thought it was nuts that in America if they want to dig up a grave to get evidence of a crime it’s a huge deal and they need permission but we have no problem robbing graves around the world to study and put in museums

When britain goes "negotiating", countries should mandate a return of artifacts with apologies. Most of India is with the british.

This is not even a debate its just statues in a museum for the British people it is our history and stories that hold no real value to them. The whole world agrees that what the British did during that time was super fucked up, but the fact that they are still not trying to correct it says a lot .

Britain is truly the scourge of this planet

Prismo?

Give us the Kohinoor back! Idiots it's not fuckin yours to have

Why do they take statues apart? That's not how statues work. Like the best part about statues is they're a big rock or clay sculpture made of a chunk of rock or blob of clay, not Lego.

John’s annual membership to the British Museum was cancelled shortly after.

Look at the Benin Bronzes now! Ooopsie, we cant.
They were displayed in the most prominent museums in the world, well preserved as a testimonial of african art. They gave them back a few month after this show and a few weaks later, the dictator confessed them and made them his private property.
gg.

Preserving the heritage of the human race is a global responsibility that cant be put at risk because of symbolic, political acts. "we" probably took a lot of stuff for the wrong reasons in our long history as explorers and conquerers, but at the end of the day, we preserved it, we honored it and we made a lot of it accessable for the public, with growing emphasis,transparency etc. about its origin and our own wrong doings connected with it.

You are forgetting the fact that these artifacts would not survive if they were not moved.

Kumael sounds like Aswath Damodaran here 😂

Return bronze to Nigeria and 1% of Nigerian oligarchs and their families would only allowed to see the bronze in their private collections.

John Oliver is modern Britain's greatest contribution to American society. And we're not giving him back.

Generally speaking, urban huacas (a specific type of Incan archeological site that are so common in the Peruvian capital Lima that they often fence them off because don't have the money or people to properly establish security and other personnel there to allow access by residents and tourists) are the only parts of cultural heritage not fiercely defended by Peru's people and their government. This is ONLY due to lack of resources and sites in the country rarely if ever experience degradation due to this, aside from graffiti and littering. The most famous huacas are extremely well preserved, maintained, and restored. If Peru can protect the Nazca Lines and safely get countless tourists to and from Machu Picchu (which, if you've ever gone, is a nerve-wracking bus ride) then anything that can fit in a museum is obviously no problem!

Yeah, and all the white people in the US should return to Europe. Why just stop at returning ancient artifacts?

There are thousands of native American remains in European collections. It is truly sickening that they are not returned. Not art or artifacts, but actual human remains. Our own government has an abysmal record, but nothing compares to the European disregard for "savage" peoples. European racism runs deep and it took 2 world wars for white Americans to mostly stop being bigoted toward other white people.

You can argue all day long how appalling or otherwise it is that these treasures ended up being kept by British , European and American museums , but one things for sure , they all still exist due to the care and stewardship of those individual museums . Need I remind you of the very recent carnage of ancient artefacts carried out by ISIS in Iraq ? Or the general population in Egypt during the Arab spring revolution or the dynamiting of the Buddha cut into a mountain in Afghanistan? … yeah , give the stuff back to all of them and literally watch them being stolen , defaced , sold or destroyed as corruption is RIFE in a lot of these countries . Give em back and smugly smile while they squander them .
👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Kumar Nanjali really happy in this role

In the 21st c, we should simply 3D scan and print/mold copies and return the originals. It wouldnt hurt the originals. With some time and worldwide work, it seems possible to figure out the original order, helping the true owners place these as they were pre-looting. The museums would still have educational displays, and original relics could go home.