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Coloniality, Collections and responsible use of AI in museums

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Coloniality, Collections and responsible use of AI in museums

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Designed with decolonial values in mind, the aim of this toolkit and workbook is to help museums and heritage organisations, those who work within them, and their broader communities, define on an ongoing basis what a responsible use of AI should look like for their specific setting, ambitions, and projects. In particular, this resource aims to consider AI use as it relates to processes of museum decolonisation that address museum collections which were acquired as part of colonial expansion and rule. AI is enmeshed with and maintains historic and ongoing colonial power relations, biases, and harms. Given the momentum around AI integration, museums and heritage institutions face a complicated and potentially fraught process of navigation in which they attempt to reconcile AI use with their educative, social, and cultural mission and ethic, including their processes of decolonisation.

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Vast scale of overseas human remains held in UK museums decried by MPs and experts

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Exclusive: Guardian study finds UK museums hold more than 260,000 items of remains, often in sacrilegious ways

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Did the British Museum Remove Palestine From Its Displays?

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Did the British Museum Remove Palestine From Its Displays?

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Did the British Museum Remove Palestine From Its Displays?

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The institution acknowledged altering some texts to refer to Canaan, an ancient name for the region, but said the word “Palestine” still appears elsewhere.

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Tracey Emin: 'Racist behaviour is dividing our country'

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Tracey Emin: 'Racist behaviour is dividing our country'

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The Art Newspaper - International art news and events

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Tracey Emin: ‘Racist behaviour is dividing our country’

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As her landmark Tate Modern exhibition opens, the artist discusses the rise of Reform UK and the British Museum’s “terrible colonial past”

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Decolonisation - Indian president's house

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Decolonisation - Indian president's house

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The Art Newspaper - International art news and events

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Architect Edwin Lutyens’s bust removed from Indian president’s house as government reshapes nation’s image

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The move is part of ongoing contestation over India’s architectural heritage

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Behind a telegraph paywall - so we need fo

pay to join the debate about paying!

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Smithsonian to return three Indian sculptures

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Smithsonian to return three Indian sculptures

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The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art has announced the repatriation of three historic South Indian bronze sculptures to India after extensive provenance research confirmed the artifacts were illegally removed from temples in Tamil Nadu decades ago. The museum announced Jan.28.

The sculptures identified for return include a Chola-period "Shiva Nataraja" (ca. 990), a 12th-century Chola-period "Somaskanda," and a 16th-century Vijayanagar-period "Saint Sundarar with Paravai." These works are considered preeminent examples of South Indian bronze-casting traditions and originally served as sacred objects carried during temple processions. However the "Shiva Nataraja" sculpture will remain in the United States.

The museum said through the press not that under a unique agreement reached with the Indian government, the "Shiva Nataraja" will remain in the United State. This arrangement allows the museum to continue displaying the masterpiece while publicly documenting its history of illicit removal and subsequent legal return. The work will be featured in the exhibition, "The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas."

The decision follows a multi-year systematic review of the museum's South Asian collections. In 2023, researchers collaborated with the Photo Archives of the French Institute of Pondicherry to confirm that all three bronzes had been photographed in their original temple settings in Tamil Nadu between 1956 and 1959. Following these findings, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) determined the objects were removed in direct violation of Indian law.

"The National Museum of Asian Art is committed to stewarding cultural heritage responsibly and advancing transparency in our collection," said Museum Director Chase F. Robinson. He noted that the return of the sculptures is the result of rigorous research and demonstrates a commitment to ethical museum practice, expressing gratitude to the Indian government for the loan of the Shiva Nataraja.

Detailed provenance research traced the "Shiva Nataraja" to the Sri Bhava Aushadesvara Temple in Tirutturaippundi Taluk, where it was documented in 1957. The museum acquired the piece in 2002 from the Doris Wiener Gallery in New York, which researchers discovered had provided falsified documentation to facilitate the sale. The "Somaskanda" and "Saint Sundarar with Paravai" entered the collection in 1987 as part of a 1,000-object gift from Arthur M. Sackler. Archives confirmed the "Somaskanda" was photographed at the Visvanatha Temple in Alattur in 1959, while the "Saint Sundarar with Paravai" was documented at a Shiva temple in Veerasolapuram in 1956.

The museum described its provenance process as a meticulous combination of physical examination and documentary review, involving export licenses, dealer records, and historical correspondence. The Smithsonian Institution is currently working with the Embassy of India to finalize the formal arrangements for the handover.

For decades, India has intensified efforts to recover cultural artifacts removed illegally from archaeological sites and places of worship. The National Museum of Asian Art, a part of the Smithsonian Institution, has housed one of the world's most significant Asian art collections since opening in 1923.

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Smithsonian to Return Three Bronze Sculptures to India - indica News

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indica News Bureau- The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art has announced the repatriati - Smithsonian to Return Three Bronze Sculptures to India

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Nationals' exclusion from restitution being reviewed

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Nationals' exclusion from restitution being reviewed

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DCMS to review exclusion of national museums from new restitution rules - Museums Association

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‘Unusual’ use of government powers questioned by legal experts and sector bodies

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‘Practical ethicists’ create restitution tool 

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‘Practical ethicists’ create restitution tool 

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ArtDependence | A New Tool for Museums – The Decision Aid for the Restitution of Cultural Artefacts

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A New Tool for Museums – The Decision Aid for the Restitution of Cultural Artefacts

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New traction for old petition calling for return by loan. If asked I’m sure more than 1.2M of us would say yes!

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Buckingham Palace not returning human remains 

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Buckingham Palace not returning human remains 

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Black History Walks | London's Black History on Instagram: "Buckingham Palace refuses to return remains of Ethiopian Prince. Watch out for our next Trafalgar square black history walks. Prince Alamayou was heir to Ethiopia's  400 year castles, he was kidnapped and became part of Victoria's 'family' and blocked from ever returning"

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357 likes, 39 comments - blackhistorywalks on December 18, 2025: "Buckingham Palace refuses to return remains of Ethiopian Prince. Watch out for our next Trafalgar square black history walks. Prince Alamayou was heir to Ethiopia's  400 year castles, he was kidnapped and became part of Victoria's 'family' and blocked from ever returning". 

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View this post on Instagram

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Selling off Victorian architectural fragments 

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Selling off Victorian architectural fragments 

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Parts of Norwich Castle replaced during renovation to be sold - BBC News

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Fixtures and fittings going up for sale include a wooden staircase, oak doors and a stone window.

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Should a top Russian archaeologist face trial for digging in occupied Crimea? - BBC News

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The case of a scholar wanted in Ukraine sparked a debate on the relationship between museums and the Russian state.

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Research into inequalities in museum attendance 

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Research into inequalities in museum attendance 

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Major research project to explore inequalities in museum attendance - Museums Association

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University of Leicester announces four-year initiative to address sector’s engagement and benefit gap

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Entry fee price discrimination: Should overseas visitors pay for our museums?

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The Man Who Pays His Way: Adding charges increases friction – but could the British Museum charge tourists a fee?

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Historian criticises BBC for removing Trump line from Radio 4 lecture

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Historian Rutger Bregman criticises BBC for removing Donald Trump line from Radio 4’s Reith Lecture

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Rutger Bregman says he is “genuinely dismayed” after a line about the US president was edited out.

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Historian criticises BBC for removing Trump line from Radio 4 lecture

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Historian Rutger Bregman criticises BBC for removing Donald Trump line from Radio 4’s Reith Lecture

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Rutger Bregman says he is “genuinely dismayed” after a line about the US president was edited out.

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‘Ethical choreography’ between museums and artists 

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‘Ethical choreography’ between museums and artists 

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CIMAM Executive Office MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona Plaça dels Àngels, 1 08001 Barcelona Spain View on map

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JTI No Longer Sponsoring The British Museum - Tobacco Reporter

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The move follows years of criticism from campaigners, including a 2016 open letter signed by 1,000 people calling the sponsorship “morally unacceptable.”

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Should Hitler's DNA have been studied – or just left alone?

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Ground-breaking research has made some fascinating discoveries on the dictator, from his ancestry to possible neurological disorders.

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The Promise and Peril of AI (American Association of Museums)

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The Promise and Peril of AI (American Association of Museums)

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The Promise and Peril of AI: A Q&A with Marion Carré

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In 2023, I found myself on a list of museum “influencers”—thank you, Blooloop—alongside Marion Carré. Carré is the CEO and cofounder of Ask Mona, a company that helps cultural organizat…

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Stolen Louvre jewellery raises questions on colonial past 

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Stolen Louvre jewellery raises questions on colonial past 

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Louvre heist renews questions about how Europe’s treasures were won

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The theft of crown jewels from Louvre is prompting renewed debate over the colonial origins of their gemstones and broader ethics of Europe’s museum…

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This article isn’t what I was expecting. Responsible tourism is a two-way thing, with the main onus on the tourists inserting themselves into a new culture. This article is all about Egyptians’ behaviour to tourists. What about tourist behaviour?

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Respectful Tourism: Egypt’s moral duty ahead of the Grand Museum opening

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“Correct Your Concepts” Initiative Stresses that Positive Tourist Interactions are Key to Economic and Cultural Success

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Corporate sponsors shy following protests

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Corporate sponsors shy following protests

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Museums are in the pink while corporate sponsors remain shy

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By embracing private philanthropy, the sector has received record sums, however businesses are feeling burnt by protests

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Cultural heritage as ‘backdrop to champagne toasts and celebrity photos’: criticism of the BM Pink Ball

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Cultural heritage as ‘backdrop to champagne toasts and celebrity photos’: criticism of the BM Pink Ball

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British Museum’s ‘Pink Ball’: Commercial exploitation betrays sanctity of civilization

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In an act that Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni condemned as

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Benin Bronzes Highlight Complexity of Repatriation Decisions | JD Supra

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The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) recently announced the closure of its Benin Kingdom Gallery and the return of two bronzes from its collection to…

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Copyright restrictions limiting open heritage 

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Copyright restrictions limiting open heritage 

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Inconsistent copyright laws cited among hurdles to open heritage - Arts Professional

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Organisations wrongly claiming copyright restrictions over faithful digital reproductions of public domain heritage are preventing cross-border cultural

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Extensive change to historic building without Planning Permission 

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Extensive change to historic building without Planning Permission 

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The US National Park Service has guidelines and a rigorous review process for any construction. That includes things like reviewing in-depth plans for a project, vetting the architect and designs and reviewing the costs.

Robert K Sutton, former Chief Historian of the NPS said that hasn't been done here.

"This building is so important. It's considered, I think, to be the most important executive building in the world – yet we just don't know what's happening and I think that's very inappropriate."

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Sakshi Venkatraman, Kwasi Asiedu, Bernd Debusmann Jr

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White House begins demolishing part of East Wing for Trump ballroom - BBC News

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Crews tore down a massive covered entryway and windows in the East Wing to make way for Trump’s new event space.

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Exhibition explores ethics of human archaeology

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Canterbury exhibition explores ethics of archaeology of human remains

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The exhibition at the Beaney House of Art & Knowledge explores how human remains should be exhibited.

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Nicholas Cullinan’s take on the Parthenon Sculptures (and other things) 

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Nicholas Cullinan’s take on the Parthenon Sculptures (and other things) 

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Nicholas Cullinan: ’I don’t think it’s ever a good idea t...

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The British Museum director on toppling statues, the Parthenon marbles and hosting London’s new star-studded answer to the Met Gala

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How the sale of National Gallery benches sparked a conversation on museum accessibility

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The National Gallery’s red leather seating is to be auctioned, 13-14 October. But its minimal replacement is getting some flack

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Museum ethics code approval risks ‘divided sector’ over fossil fuel sponsorship - Arts Professional

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The ratification of a new code of ethics by the Museums Association (MA) calling for members to “transition away” from sponsorship by organisations involved

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Should architectural value (and politics) override ethical concerns?

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Should architectural value (and politics) override ethical concerns?

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The Art Newspaper - International art news and events

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Outrage over heritage listing of temple in Mexico tied to sex-abuse scandal

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La Luz del Mundo’s flagship church in Guadalajara is a unique structure, but should architectural value (and politics) override ethical concerns?

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Why Corporate Sponsorship Is Getting Riskier for Museums

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Why Corporate Sponsorship Is Getting Riskier for Museums

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National Center for Civil and Human Rights redevelopment

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National Center for Civil and Human Rights redevelopment

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If the problem continues, contact the site owner.

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The Science Museum just held held a party for climate criminal and genocide-enabler Adani

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Campaigners are ramping up calls for a full cultural and educational boycott of the museum for its gross greenwashing for Adani

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Debate reignites around ethical sponsorship in museums

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Debate reignites around ethical sponsorship in museums

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Debate reignites around ethical sponsorship - Museums Association

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As the MA’s new Code of Ethics takes a firmer stance on the issue, opinion remains divided in the sector on where to draw line. By Geraldine Kendall Adams

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Fresh discoveries are rewriting U.S. history amid backlash from conservatives

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A new generation of historians have produced works challenging old myths

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Good On You - Sustainable Fashion and Beauty Brand Ratings

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Thousands of brand ratings, articles and expertise on more sustainable fashion and beauty. Know the impact of brands on people and planet, and discover better options.

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Is the Bayeux tapestry being put at risk by loan? 

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Is the Bayeux tapestry being put at risk by loan? 

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French voice fears over Bayeux Tapestry move to UK

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Bayeux Tapestry: French voice fears over artwork’s move to London

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The precious medieval work is to be displayed in London next year - but the French art world is strongly opposed.

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France returns king's skull to Madagascar

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Madagascar’s King Toera: France returns skull of monarch killed during colonial era

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King Toera was killed by French troops 128 years ago and his head kept in a Paris museum’s archive.

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Controversy continues over Israeli embassy event at British Museum - Museums Association

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Open letter calls for apology but institution says event was commercial hire

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https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/imperial-nostalgia-or-shared-culture/amp

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PREMIUM

The British Museum is presenting its exhibition Ancient India: Living Traditions as a celebration of shared culture. This is not cultural diplomacy; it is state-funded imperial nostalgia.

AS Britain prepares to roll out the red carpet for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finalise a long-awaited trade agreement with India, it is quietly spending over Rs 730 crore a year to subsidise a museum filled with artefacts taken from India during colonial rule.

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Imperial nostalgia or shared culture - The Tribune

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The British Museum is presenting its exhibition Ancient India: Living Traditions as a celebration of shared culture. This is not cultural diplomacy; it is state-funded imperial nostalgia.

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‘What a shame when a dinosaur disappears into the mansion of an oligarch rather than being displayed for all to enjoy’: The ethics of the dinosaur auction

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Fancy a stegosaurus in your living room? You can buy one at auction. But the latest luxury good is a paleontologist’s worst nightmare.

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M+H The Secret Museum Director - challenges of display and interpretation

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M+H The Secret Museum Director - challenges of display and interpretation

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The Secret Museum Director Advisor’s anonymous sector contributor

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The challenge of interpreting ‘The Beast’ - Museums + Heritage

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The Secret Museum Director explores curatorial dilemmas around often controversial centrepieces that divide audiences and overshadow other displays

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Manchester Museum asks visitors if body of Egyptian woman should remain on display - Museums Association

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Consultation marks 200 years since mummified remains of Asru were first unwrapped

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Why the Benin Bronzes Are Being Returned—and Who Gets Them | Artnet News

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Museums worldwide are returning the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. Here’s why it matters, who’s receiving them, and what it means for restitution policies.

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A terrace crush during the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium fatally injured 97 Liverpool supporters.

Labour MP Byrne, then 16 years old, was at the stadium that day.

He said: "The law cannot bring back the 97, it cannot erase the decades of pain, nor undo the trauma inflicted by callous lies and institutional neglect.

"But it can stop this from ever happening again - it can give truth, a fight for justice, and restore some of the faith lost, not just in the system but in the very idea of justice."

He urged Sir Keir not to "let this moment slip away" and to "honour the 97, not just with remembrance, but with change" .

In 2016, after a 27-year campaign by victims' families, an inquest jury ruled fans were not to blame for the disaster and that those who died had been unlawfully killed.

The original Hillsborough Law, first presented in 2017, included a legal responsibility for public servants to tell the truth after state-related disasters.

Legal funding would also be provided for those affected by them.

During Prime Minister's Questions, another of Liverpool's Labour MPs, Kim Johnson, accused ministers of planning to table a "watered down" bill which "doesn't deserve to be named Hillsborough Law".

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PM promises Hillsborough Law will include legal duty of candour

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Sir Keir Starmer rejects claims of the bill being "watered down", insisting he is "fully committed".

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The Tech Industry Said It Was “Impossible” to Create AI Based Entirely on Ethically-Sourced Data, So These Scientists Proved Them Wrong in Spectacular Fashion

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A team of researchers have created a dataset using only openly licensed or public domain content and used it to train an AI model.

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Museums, ethics and AI

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Artwork referencing J K Rowling removed from display by NT 

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Artwork referencing J K Rowling removed from display by NT 

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National Trust cover up tampered artwork in Derbyshire featuring JK Rowling

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A campaigner removed stitching on an artwork which covered the Harry Potter author’s name.

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Baillie Gifford sponsorship and climate boycott

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Baillie Gifford sponsorship and climate boycott

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The Edinburgh International Book Festival has ended its 20-year funding partnership with sponsors Baillie Gifford after pressure from climate change protesters.
The move follows a similar decision by the Hay festival in Wales last week.

The investment company, which is based in Edinburgh, has been a major sponsor of UK arts events but has come under scrutiny for its investments in fossil fuels.

Book festival chairman Allan Little said they could nor deliver a safe and sustainable festival in August with the constant threat of disruption from activists.

The protests began when more than 50 authors called on the festival to end its deal with Baillie Gifford in 2023, after climate change activist Greta Thunberg cancelled an appearance at the event.

The then festival director, Nick Barley, warned the organisation would not have enough money to operate without private sponsorship.

In a statement released on Thursday, Baillie Gifford's Nick Thomas said: "The activists' anonymous campaign of coercion and misinformation has put intolerable pressure on authors and the festival community.

"We step back with the hope that the festival will thrive this year and into the future.

"We hold the activists squarely responsible for the inhibiting effect their action will have on funding for the arts in this country."

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Edinburgh book festival ends Baillie Gifford sponsorship

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The festival said it could not safely go ahead in August after threats of disruption from climate activists.

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https://www.aam-us.org/2025/05/30/witnessing-change-exhibition-ethics-and-practice/

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Following a five-year national tour, the Witness Blanket was installed in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights' Actions Count Gallery on a long-term basis in 2024. Credit: Aaron Cohen, CMHR.

This article first appeared in the journal Exhibition (Spring 2025) Vol. 44 No. 1 and is reproduced with permission. If you don't read the journal, become a member to receive your copy of the full upcoming issues or purchase the Spring 2025 issue.

Established in 2008 and opened in 2014, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR; the Museum) is a relatively new institution. As the first Canadian national museum established outside Ottawa, the Museum's purpose is "to explore the subject of human rights, with special but not exclusive reference to Canada, in order to enhance the public's understanding of human rights, to promote respect for others and to encourage reflection and dialogue." Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the Museum's presence and purpose are representative of the long and competing histories of its place: CMHR sits at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, a site of dialogue, celebration, and shared humanity from time immemorial-a meeting place of the Anishinaabeg, Ininew, Anisininew, and Dakota Oyate, and the birthplace and homeland of Red River Métis-while also standing "atop centuries of colonial invasion, settlement, and violent dispossession."

Although steadfast in its commitment to building the first museum in the world dedicated to the history and understanding of human rights, the Museum was guilty of undermining human rights values within the organization. In 2020, CMHR was forced to confront a crisis of ethics and identity: violations of the organization's values and mandate, including self-censorship, anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, heterosexism and homophobia, and poor management of workplace human rights issues.

Throughout this period of formation, confrontation, and ongoing transformation, the Museum's relationship with the Witness Blanket has provided a guiding spirit and model within which we're working to define and follow a new ethical practice.

The Witness Blanket

Inspired by Indigenous woven blankets, the Witness Blanket is a large-scale, participatory work of art created by multidisciplinary Indigenous artist, master carver, filmmaker, and author Carey Newman (Kwakwaka'wakw/Salish), whose traditional name is Hayalthkin'geme. It bears witness to a terrible truth: During the 19th century, and as recently as 1997, more than 130 Indian residential schools operated across Canada (similarly, more than 500 Indian boarding schools operated across the United States). These schools were a deliberate attempt to destroy First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities and ways of life, part of a broader process of colonization and genocide.

The Witness Blanket contains contributions donated by residential school survivors and their families, Indigenous communities, friendship centers, and governments. Other items featured in it were reclaimed from former residential school sites. Those responsible for the school system-churches and the Canadian federal government-donated pieces as a gesture toward reconciliation. In all, more than 800 items from 77 communities were gathered for this artwork. They include letters, photos, stories, books, clothing, art, and building fragments.

Every object donated to the Witness Blanket tells a story. One by one, they tell us about specific experiences in many times and places. Together, they tell us about the sweeping history of the residential schools that operated from coast to coast to coast for over a hundred years.

The Witness Blanket is a monumental artwork, and it is so much more than that. Throughout its five-year national tour, the blanket was offered medicines and tokens that have been carefully tracked, mapped, and returned to their place in the exhibition at each subsequent location, becoming intrinsic parts of the Witness Blanket itself. Video footage from the creation of the Witness Blanket and its tour came together in an 85-minute documentary that is now exhibited with the blanket in our Actions Count Gallery. Two true-to-scale replicas of the blanket were created to ensure it and the stories it carries could make their way to remote Indigenous communities and small towns where the demands of a large, complex, and fragile artwork could not be met. Two books, The Witness Blanket: Truth, Art and Reconciliation and Picking Up the Pieces: Residential School Memories and the Making of the Witness Blanket, both by Newman, bring these stories into the homes of visitors, while an online exhibition-WitnessBlanket.ca-offers an experience rich with oral histories, individual object stories, and curriculum-based teaching resources. In the coming year the Witness Blanket will come to life in both augmented reality and virtual reality, accompanied by soundscapes collected from across this land. In every iteration of the work-art, replica, book, video, soundscape, ceremony, web, and virtual reality-the stories and spirit are present, and we are invited to bear witness. This transmedia storytelling approach isn't just about design. It is an ethical response to the power of the blanket's stories and the need for them to be told and heard.

The relationship between Newman, the Museum, and the Witness Blanket is documented in a groundbreaking Stewardship Agreement that embeds rights and privileges in a cultural work through both Canadian and Indigenous law while resisting suggestions that the Witness Blanket is or was property to be transferred or owned. Text of the agreement can be found on WitnessBlanket.ca; however, the document does not represent the entire agreement. In 2019, Newman and representatives of the Museum gathered in the Big House in K'ómoks (Comox, Vancouver Island) and, through ceremony, committed to their roles as story keepers. In September 2024, the story keepers gathered again to feast the agreement, in a form of governance that has existed from time immemorial: a shared meal. Community members were called to witness both ceremonies, retaining and caring for the memory of what was and wasn't seen, said, felt, and communicated, becoming responsible for sharing that knowledge with others; many witnesses from the first ceremony in 2019 attended the feast in 2024. Making the agreement in accordance with both Western and Indigenous law means that the words written in the document must be understood alongside the spirit and experiences of the ceremonies that shape it.

And, while sector-wide debates surrounding museum ethics and repatriation of cultural artifacts continue, the Witness Blanket's future has already been made clear: the Stewardship Agreement binds Newman and the Museum to consider the next seven generations in our work together while acknowledging that nothing lives forever. A time will come when the Witness Blanket will be laid to rest. While this may challenge the orthodoxy of museum collecting and preservation "in perpetuity," it has also offered nuance to ethical decisions around the Witness Blanket and its conservation. For example, we do not display the blanket's face in direct sunlight, but nor do we fully isolate it from the outside world. Visitors are able-although not actively invited-to touch the surface of the blanket if they are called to do so, while fragile objects on it are protected by glass-fronted shadowboxes. In part, the finite existence referenced in the Stewardship Agreement is directly connected to the purpose and work of the Witness Blanket: there are stories that must be told here and now, and there is an urgency to the work the blanket was created to do.

Our Emerging Ethics Practice

Although Canadian law does not offer a direct equivalent to America's Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Canadian museums are similarly bound by legal obligations toward sovereign Indigenous nations. Additionally, as a member of the International Council of Museums, the American Alliance of Museums, and the Canadian Museums Association, CMHR is bound by the codes of ethics of each of these associations, as well as by the professional codes that govern the career practice of the public servants, collections specialists, registrars, conservators, accountants, engineers, and others who work within our walls. Much of the content of these statements leans heavily on the justice-centered ethical frame and obligates museums to act according to law. And yet, CMHR's galleries are a testament to countless situations where ethical violations occurred with full compliance with the law. Applied as a singular perspective on ethics, codes that focus only on legal requirements create a risk that we see only one part of the picture. While critical, acting lawfully is often insufficient.

In contrast to the rules-based justice perspective, ethics of care are those where the interdependence of people is understood, where others affected by our ethical choices are given consideration in proportion to their vulnerability, and where ethical choices are shaped by situational details that inform how best to safeguard and promote the interests of the individuals involved.

In 2024, the Museum adopted "Our Path Forward," an articulation of how we work and what we do in this place. Grounded in a theory of change and shaped by the experiences of the first 10 years of the Museum's existence, Our Path Forward focuses CMHR's work on hosting transformative experiences, sharing stories that inspire action, and modeling human rights practices-and it places relationships at the center of it all. By centering relationships and embracing Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing, the Museum's ethical practice is being shaped into one that sees both parts of the ethical picture-justice and care-at once.

Doing Work That Is Care-Full

Expanding Access Through Multimodal Storytelling

We are often called upon to tell stories of great significance. Unfortunately, the public's relationship to museums and to Canada's vast geography can easily conspire to limit access to exhibitions for certain audiences. Our experience with the Witness Blanket has shaped our approach to exhibition practice, inspiring a comprehensive exhibition model that not only encourages the creation of transmedia storyworlds but also connects with a diverse range of visitors through multiple elements and approaches-not for effectiveness alone, but out of an ethical drive to honor the stories entrusted to our care in the broadest ways possible.

Honoring Relationships

The objects and histories that are most valuable to our exhibition practice and collections mandate are those that represent lived stories of human rights. Those lives are embodied in relationships, and through our work with the Witness Blanket we are learning that relationships require ongoing reciprocity, responsibility, and respect.

Maintaining Ties Between Donors and Their Histories

In reviewing our Collections and Stewardship Policy, we are working to develop systems that support our ability to maintain connections with the individuals connected to an object; for example, notifying families when their belongings are on display, offering donors lifetime memberships, or considering when it might be appropriate to support a donor's travel to CMHR-either to carry their belongings or to meet their artifacts at the Museum-so that they can maintain a long-term physical connection to the place where their families' stories will rest. Our Collections and Stewardship Policy also includes a deaccessioning provision allowing any donor of an artifact or contributor of an oral history to withdraw their contribution or consent, and to the fullest extent possible, their belongings or histories will be returned.

Supporting Visitors on Their Journeys

Caring for stories also means caring for everyone who has a relationship to those stories, and for everyone who may be building a relationship to those stories for the first time. Gallery hosts-paid museum staff present in our galleries-are trained to facilitate learning and to support every visitor in their emotional responses to content. Visitor care plans for exhibitions include identifying spaces for rest or reflection and preparing our team with connections to psychosocial supports. Our spatial design practices offer visitors clear introductions to gallery content upon arrival, consider routes of travel that allow visitors to bypass especially difficult content, and consider where hosts might be best positioned to support visitors. Practices are in place to monitor participatory exhibits and to identify when a visitor has expressed distressing emotions that might indicate a risk of self-harm, and team members communicate from gallery to gallery when they have met a visitor whom they think might benefit from added care or connection as they move through the Museum.

Caring for Staff

Doing this work in a care-full way also has a unique impact on our team. Telling the stories of the Indian Residential School System can sometimes invite hard conversations with genocide deniers, just as telling stories of the Holocaust sometimes does. Gallery staff are trained to navigate microaggressions from visitors, while holding space for the learning that can come from those difficult interactions. Gallery staff are not expected to remain in a single gallery for more than an hour, and time off the gallery floor for reflection, rest, and peer support is incorporated into the daily schedule. With the support of a psychologist who specializes in trauma, our curators, exhibition designers, researchers, and collections and stewardship staff are developing peer-support approaches to prevent, recognize, and respond to trauma in our relationships and work. We are rethinking our practices relating to object research, loan agreements, and collections management to ensure all our interactions are trauma-aware, and we are working to prevent trauma activation while also developing the skills to manage trauma when it is, inevitably, activated.

Museum workers have always been trained to care for objects: to ensure food stays out of galleries, to know when it's important to wear gloves to handle artifacts and why those gloves come off for works on paper. Over the course of 10 years of telling difficult human rights stories and through our relationship with the Witness Blanket, we're now developing our skills in handling our visitors, communities, and colleagues with the same care.

Looking Back to Look Forward

On September 20, 2024, when CMHR board trustees, educators, curators, collections stewards, Elders, executives, administrators, volunteers, and visitors gathered alongside Newman, Chief Wedlidi Speck, witnesses, story keepers, and the Witness Blanket itself, they once again feasted together, as they had in 2019, at the beginning of the blanket's journey (fig. 3).

Gathering to feast and to take care of our relationships was not only an obligation set upon the Museum and Newman in the 2019 Stewardship Agreement, it was also a reunion, an opportunity for honest reflection, and a cultural celebration that marked both five years of shared stewardship, and 10 years of this remarkable project.

Relationships are at the center of Indigenous ways of being, knowing, and doing-relationships do not merely shape reality, they are reality, and the shared aspect of an Indigenous methodology is accountability to relationships. Understood through this paradigm, the Stewardship Agreement invited CMHR into a new model that was unorthodox in the tradition of Crown museums. By accepting the invitation to steward the Witness Blanket, the Museum accepted a new accountability that would, inevitably, incorporate an ethics of care into its museological practice.

The feast represented significant growth and change in the Museum. "We held a council to speak about the changing needs of the blanket, five years into our agreement, and begin the process of looking forward at our shared responsibilities across the years ahead," Newman reflected. "It was wonderful to hear from [former Museum staff] who despite having moved on from their time at the CMHR, remain connected to the work we began together."

During that feast, however, witnesses and story keepers also reminded us that just 10 years ago, when the Museum was preparing for its opening day, the story looked very different: Elders and Indigenous leaders were gathered outside in protest of the Museum. The Museum was placed on this land without consent, failed to recognize the harms in which it was complicit, was unable to acknowledge the genocide against Indigenous people that is now broadly accepted in Canada, and, in our effort to tell diverse human rights stories, had failed in our commitments to many communities. On this day 10 years later, many of those who protested outside in 2014 were now inside, sitting in circle with us as we feasted the blanket and the agreement.

Over the course of 10 years, we have been called to bear witness to the competing truths of this Museum: it represents a history of storytelling, dialogue, and sharing that has existed in this place since time immemorial, and it represents colonial violence and the imposition of the Canadian state on this land and its people.

In response, we are asking ourselves questions that every museum and museum worker might contemplate:

If relationships are reality and instill accountability, what relationships are we caring for in our work each day?

What accountabilities-to individuals, to communities, and to protocols and practices-are inherent in the belongings we care for and the stories we hold?

Do our policies and processes support these accountabilities or frustrate them?

Are we doing enough to honor and share the stories that are gathered in our exhibitions?

Are we supporting our teams, our visitors, and ourselves as we grow in our relationships with our work, with one another, and with our pasts?

Are we going beyond what must be done to consider what should be done, by considering not only what is just but also what is care-full?

In the same way that one's eye can be trained to see both the rabbit and the duck in an ambiguous figure, we have learned (and continue to learn) to see the competing truths of this place.

In the same way that one's eye can be trained to see both the profile and the vase, our ethics practices as museum professionals can be trained to focus not just on an ethics of justice and codes, but also on an ethics of care.

The Witness Blanket has taught us this and so much more; and still, we have so much more yet to learn.

Felix Berry is Curator at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Matthew Cutler is Vice-President, Exhibitions, and Head of Curation at CMHR.

Lisa Quirion is Manager, Collections and Stewardship, at CMHR.

[1] "Museums Act," Consolidated Acts (S.C. 1990, c.3).

[2] Mandi Gray and Karl Gardner, "(In) Visible Histories: Colonialism, Space and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights," Annual Review of Interdisciplinary Justice Research 5(Winter 2016): https://www.cijs.ca/volume-5.

[3] Harris Law Solutions, "Rebuilding the Foundation: External review into systemic racism and oppression at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, August 2020, https://humanrights.ca/sites/prod/files/2020-08/A-FullReport_EN.pdf.

[4] Through his father, Newman is Kwakwak'awakw from the Kukwekum, Giiksam, and WaWalaby'ie clans of Northern Vancouver Island, and Coast Salish from Cheam of the Sto:lo Nation along the upper Fraser Valley. Through his mother, his ancestors are Settlers of English, Irish, and Scottish heritage.

[5] "Discover the Witness Blanket," accessed March 12, 2025, witnessblanket.ca. This website was co-created with Carey Newman, an Elders circle supported by the National Centre for Truth and Reconcilation, and Animikii, an Indigenous technology firm.

[6] See, Picking Up the Pieces: The Making of the Witness Blanket, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, March 20,2020, updated September 18, 2024, vimeo, 1:26:48, https://humanrights.ca/story/picking-pieces-making-witness-blanket.

[7] For more detail, see "Decolonizing Contracts - Carey Newman," Weweni Indigenous Scholars Speakers Series, University of Winnipeg, February 7, 2022, YouTube, 56:27, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Ub3865Tb4

[8] From 2019 to 2022, the Museum undertook an extensive preservation and conservation project alongside staff from the Canadian Conservation Institute and the Manitoba Museum to lead this project. For more details see, Skylar Wall, Cindy Colford, Carolyn Sirett, Stephanie Chipilski, and Carey Newman, "Caring for the Witness Blanket: A decolonizing approach to conserving Indigenous artwork," Canadian Museum for Human Rights, May 15, 2023, https://humanrights.ca/story/caring-witness-blanket.

[9] Carol Gilligan, "Moral Orientation and Moral Development," in Women and Moral Theory, ed. Eva Feder Kittay and Diana T. Meyers (Rowman & Littlefield: 1987), 19-33.

[10] Chief Speck is E'ikʷsən Hereditary Chief with cultural connections to the Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Northern Vancouver Island Coast Salish tribes located on the Pacific Northwest Coast.

[11] Shawn Wilson, Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods (Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing, 2008).

[12] Carey Newman, "Reflections on the Feast of the Stewardship Agreement," Facebook, September 24, 2024, video, 13:52, accessed March 16, 2025, https://www.facebook.com/carey.newman.7/posts/.

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Witnessing Change: An Exhibition's Enduring Impact on Museum Ethics and Practice

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The British Museum is everybody's idea of a museum, but at the same time, it is hardly like a museum at all. It is more like a little state. The rooms you visit on a day out are the least of it: the museum is not the contents of its display cases. It is an embassy, a university, a police station, a science lab, a customs house, a base for archaeological excavations, a place of asylum, a retail business, a publisher, a morgue, a detective agency. "We're not a warehouse, [or] a mausoleum," its chair, the UK's former chancellor George Osborne, told guests at the museum's annual trustees' dinner in November. On the contrary, it is both these things, and others beside.

It is a sprawling, chaotic reflection of Britain's psyche over 300 years: its voracious curiosity and cultural relativism; its pugnacious superiority complex; its restless seafaring and trading; its cruel imperial enrichment; its brilliant scholarship, its brutality, its idealism, its postcolonial anxiety. All of this is expressed through the amassing of objects: a demented accumulation, a mania for hoarding that, in any human, would be regarded as a kind of illness. The museum contains, in total, 8m objects. Or maybe 6m, depending on how you count them. (A collection of 1m cigarette cards bequeathed in 2006 is counted as a single item, for instance.) Either way, the collection is vast and grows every year. Add together everything owned by the Louvre, the National Gallery and the V&A, and you still have fewer than half the objects possessed by the British Museum.

It is not the oldest museum in Britain, but in essential ways it is the ur-museum, the one that set the pattern for all Britain's national museums. Founded in 1753, it is the result of the decision of Sir Hans Sloane, an 18th-century Anglo-Irish doctor and collector enriched by, among other things, the labour of enslaved people in Jamaica, to leave his remarkable collection to the nation for "the improvement, knowledge and information of all persons". Unlike its nearest counterparts overseas - the Louvre, the Hermitage - it was not established as a monarch's projection of power, or, like the Metropolitan Museum, as an act of philanthropy by the super-rich. Instead, it was set up by, and is ultimately answerable to, parliament. Its aim was to shape the citizens of a newly united country, in the wake of the Jacobite attempt on the throne of 1745.

Today the British Museum is at a crisis point. It is not surprising that it should be. It is the British Museum after all. If Britain itself is searching for meaning in a postcolonial world then why should not its most resonant, its most celebrated museum? I remember being in Nairobi in 2006 with Neil MacGregor, director from 2002 to 2015. I was reporting on the opening of an exhibition - it was the first time that objects from the BM had been lent to any institution in Africa. I interviewed Idle Omar Farah, then the director-general of the National Museums of Kenya. "We feel this is going to be the central theme [of debate]: why are these objects, which come from here, kept in Britain?" he said. When I put this to MacGregor, he replied, with unusual testiness: "Repatriation is yesterday's question."

Events proved him wrong. Especially in the years of identity politics that have followed the 2008 global financial crisis, repatriation has become today's question. Criticism of the museum particularly coalesces around the Benin bronzes, objects looted by the British from Benin City's royal palace during a punitive attack in 1897, and the Parthenon sculptures, the legality of whose purchase by Lord Elgin has been disputed since the 1810s. The museum has said little publicly on these matters and, as far as the public is concerned, done little. Into this vacuum has rushed the notion that everything in the British Museum is stolen - a view that the museum, showing weak leadership, has done little to explain, complicate or rebut. Hartwig Fischer, director from 2016 to 2023, is a sensitive scholar, but he "could never find the levers of power", one trustee told me. "You could have a fascinating conversation about Montesquieu with him, but you could never build on those conversations, and no vision for the museum emerged." (Fischer declined to be interviewed for this article.)

The museum is almost invariably the most popular attraction in the UK, with about 6 million visitors a year. But much of its fabric, like the fabric of the rest of public-sector Britain, looks dingy and outmoded. Its funding is sparse by comparison to its peers in Paris and Berlin. Its staff are underpaid. It is in the early stages of a decades-long revamp, with £50m provided by BP, sponsorship from which has now been rejected by most other British cultural institutions. It has a new director, Nicholas Cullinan, formerly head of the National Portrait Gallery - but it is still unclear whether he possesses the skills to steer this complex institution through its immense renovation and transform its reputation.

Cullinan's predecessor resigned after it was shockingly revealed, in August 2023, that one of the museum's own staff, a senior curator in the Greece and Rome department, had allegedly stolen or damaged 2,000 items from the collection. The museum has named Peter Higgs as the suspected perpetrator (his son, speaking on his behalf, has denied the allegations). Over the course of three decades, ancient gems and gold jewellery had allegedly been removed from a museum strongroom - a facility that, according to security protocols, no employee should have been permitted to enter unchaperoned. Items had been apparently sold on to dealers, or auctioned on eBay.

"There was a deep sense of betrayal and loss," said museum employee. "We live for those objects. What you aim to do is leave those collections in a better state than when you found them - to make sure that they benefit from you being there."

That has always been the most important principle of the British Museum, the assumption on which its legitimacy rests: that it looks after the objects in its care. The alleged thefts and their aftermath tore up that compact between the institution and the public. The claim that the BM is, at the very least, a safe home for the contested objects it houses was shattered. Its popularity as a visitor destination may have been undented. But trust in the institution, already shaky, collapsed.

Everything in the British Museum is political. On a cold December day, after being searched in one of the museum's dismal security tents (to be replaced by "welcome pavilions" next year), I headed to the first floor galleries where there was a small display of objects from Maqdala, the Ethiopian fortress looted in 1868 by British troops, among whom was a British Museum representative. Some of the objects taken were sacred tablets, which had been seized by emperor Tewodros II from churches prior to the British attack. These are deemed too holy to be seen in public: they sit in a curious limbo behind closed doors while discussions between the museum and Ethiopian authorities continue.

Museum communiques speak much of "dialogue" in such cases; critics are impatient for action. In some cases, the impasse is being solved through long-term loans. Last year, a quantity of Asante gold was sent to Ghana by the BM and the V&A. But for those pressing for restitution, it may not be satisfactory to be permitted to "borrow" an object that you believe was stolen. Unlike some American museums, the British Museum cannot by law sell, give away or otherwise "deaccession" objects. That is the general rule - but there are some legal exceptions. There is a specific process that allows for the return of items looted by the Nazis (in 2014, for example, there was a case involving a drawing that had been bequeathed to the museum, which had been in a collection seized by the Gestapo in 1939). There is another process allowing for the return of human remains under certain circumstances. It is, therefore, possible to imagine a process being developed that might deal, on a more general level, with restitution claims. For the moment, there is no sign of things shifting.

Except, that is, in the particular case of the Parthenon sculptures, which George Osborne appears to have made his personal mission. Over the past couple of years, he has been working on brokering a deal, quietly meeting Greek politicians, sometimes in Athens, sometimes in Knightsbridge. But the British Museum - 300 years old, containing things that are 2m years old - has never been inclined to rush things. Often that makes it seem hopelessly sluggish; but occasionally its stately tempo seems an advantage, when it simply rides out volatile political trends. The place runs on museum time, not human time. When it excavated the Sumerian city of Ur between 1922 and 1934, for example, it agreed with the Iraqi government that thousands of cuneiform tablets, containing texts in Sumerian, should travel to London for study, translation and publication before being returned to Baghdad. Those easy to translate were returned fairly swiftly; but work was interrupted when curators were conscripted during the second world war. Postwar, work continued on the tougher, more fragmentary tablets, but events later in the century - the Iran-Iraq war, the invasion of Kuwait, the Iraq war and its violent aftermath, and the Covid pandemic - made returning the remaining tablets impractical. It was not until 2023 that the final 5,000 tablets were flown to Baghdad. There are no commercial flights between the two countries, so they were taken home from Northolt with the Iraqi president in his official plane, after he came to London for King Charles's coronation.

Not far from the Maqdala display case, a large first floor gallery contains objects from prehistoric Europe and the ancient Middle East. Here, when not out on loan, is the Mold cape, a remarkable piece of bronze age goldwork that is intermittently claimed by Wales, where it was discovered in 1833. This star object faces off against the Cyrus cylinder, on which is inscribed an account of the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus of Persia in 539BCE. The artefact, excavated by the British-Assyrian archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam in Iraq in 1879, was loaned to Iran in 2010, when Barack Obama's administration was negotiating its nuclear deal with the country. The then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad personally greeted Neil MacGregor as he stepped into the National Museum in Tehran.

This year, the Cyrus cylinder was due to be lent to Israel's national library in Jerusalem, but the loan has been postponed, the museum citing Foreign Office travel advice. Nearby, the Levantine gallery, showing artefacts from Israel, Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories, are under restricted opening hours "for the safety of our visitors and the collection", a spokesperson explained. Present violence resonates even here, among the relics of lost civilisations.

The public galleries are just the crust, the thin outer layer. These rooms are dotted with locked doors, barely noticed by the visiting public. Look out, next time you pass through, for discreet labels stuck to some of these doors, showing an illustration of a lion in profile. It is museum code for "evacuate me urgently in case of fire or flood" and means you are passing a storeroom. The symbol, it dawned on me this autumn, when I spotted a version made from glazed earthenware on display in gallery 47, derives from a set of 19th-century iron lions that adorned the building's railings until they were removed in 1895. Only a museum could invent a code so arcane, so historically self-referential.

Other unnoticed doors lead to offices, libraries, laboratories and study rooms. Scholars and students from across the world slip through them discreetly all day. Arguably this is where the real business of the museum happens: this where knowledge is teased from 2m years' worth of human-made things. It is also where odd little functions of the British state are performed. If you unearth an ancient or important metal object with a metal detector, it may have to go through a long, bureaucratic process, overseen by someone in one of these labs inside the British Museum.

Or, to take another example, if a customs officer at a British airport opens a suitcase and finds what she suspects is an illegally smuggled artefact, she will send it to the British Museum for assessment, study and eventual return to its place of origin. In 2016, a flask, big enough to hold two medium glasses of wine, caught the eye of a customs official at Gatwick. A dull silver colour, the object is engraved with images of bulls in profile interspersed with foliage. British Museum curator St John Simpson concluded it was about 4,000 years old, and had most likely come from southern Afghanistan, where illegal excavation and looting has been rife. In 2018, it was delivered to the Afghan ambassador. Such handovers have been halted since the fall of Kabul in 2021, but curators keep communication open with the new staff at the National Museum in the Taliban-controlled country. Even when official diplomatic relations are fraught, a mycelial network of archaeologists still crisscrosses the globe.

In the Egyptian galleries on the first floor, near some particularly beautiful ancient tomb paintings lush with images of date and palm trees, you might see a high set of locked doors. Behind them is a disused gallery, the upper reaches of its walls painted with modern reproductions of ancient Egyptian mourning scenes. The decoration is apt: this is now a storage place for human remains. On a table, when I visited last summer, skulls had been laid out for medical and forensic anthropology students visiting from the US. "We were talking through kind of the signs and features that we can see on the bones that tell us that they had leprosy," explained bioarchaeologist Rebecca Whiting, an enthusiastic young curator with a floral shirt, dangly earrings and a black manicure. The room is also the resting place of 50 medieval corpses, donated to the museum by the Sudanese government after a cemetery was cleared during the building of a dam 20 years ago. (The museum has strong links with Egypt and Sudan, and offers training and research fellowships to colleagues from both countries.) The corpses' hair, eyelashes, the warp and weft of their clothes, sometimes even their tattoos, are still visible.

The museum is the grave for 80 complete human bodies from Egypt, nine Peruvian ones, and 6,000 or so partial human remains. Among these are a Hawaiian bowl studded with human teeth and a Tibetan trumpet made from a human femur, embellished with silver, coral and turquoise. Is it any wonder that some of the people who work at the museum - among the dead, among ancient objects vibrating with history, sometimes with violence - tell of hauntings? One senior curator told me he feels goosebumps on his arm when he works after hours. "The ghosts are everywhere," he said.

Next door to the Sudanese corpses, in the human remains workspace, a postdoctoral scholar was studying the contours of teeth, better to understand population changes in Nubia between the neolithic and medieval periods. The museum is full of such scenes: work that can seem arcane or recondite, but is part of the great blood flow of knowledge through the institution. "The museum is a labyrinth - and that is also a metaphor for what it is," Sir Paul Nurse, the Nobel prize-winning geneticist, and former British Museum trustee, told me. He meant that the museum is physically bewildering. But also, that its seemingly unconnected activities are part of one great structure that has a pattern, and meaning.

Sometimes the fastest way to traverse the confounding territory of the museum is through its entrails. In the basement slumber redundant boilers the size of lorries, and visitors walk through brick-lined corridors reinforced to protect you from air raids (from the last war, though maybe they will come in handy again). The science department plunges three levels below ground. A huge X-ray machine, presided over by the experimental physicist Daniel O'Flynn, can analyse objects as large as lifesize Greek sculptures. Onwards through the warren, and researchers are using molecular analysis to look at lac dye, a crimson colorant used in India and Vietnam; others wield an electron microscope to examine how the gold of seventh-century BCE Greek jewellery was worked; others are scrutinising the wood of Vindolanda tablets - Romano-British letters and memos found south of Hadrian's wall, written on sheets of willow, alder, birch and ash.

Or you could survey it from above: take one of the museum's 56 lifts, helpfully colour-coded to aid navigation, climb some precipitous metal stairs, and navigate the place from the roof. From this perspective, it becomes clear that behind the calm personifications of the pediment - Mathematics and Painting, Geometry and Drama - lies a hectic landscape of vermicular ductwork and endless grubby skylights, some of them patched with flapping lengths of gaffer tape. When I visited in the spring, the director of estates, a cheerful Scot called Russell Torrance, gazed benignly over his rackety domain, and explained the museum's chaotic jigsaw of interlocking buildings. Here were asbestos and water ingress, there were corrosion and leaks. "We speak a lot of keeping the wheels on the bus," he said.

Work is due to begin on a new energy centre to replace the museum's dying gas-fired boilers, and there are plans for the complete refurbishment of the galleries - particularly ramshackle from this purview - on the western side of the complex. The museum employs a Harris hawk to discourage crows, who have a propensity to drop stones on the curved glass roof of the central Great Court. Every time they crack one of these bespoke panes, Alice Fraser, the museum's head of capital projects, told me, it costs tens of thousands of pounds to replace it.

However impressive the view, though, the most profound essence of the museum was not to be discerned from this Olympian perspective. I found it when, one day last spring, I went to see Neil Wilkin, curator of British and European history. He was in the study room for his section, a wood-panelled, book-lined room, where anyone, he said, can make an appointment to come to look at items from the stores. He had something to show me. It is known as the Burton Agnes drum, and it is indeed the shape and size of a small toy drum, though its actual purpose is obscure. It was buried in the neolithic age in Yorkshire, in the grave of three children, where it lay until it was excavated in 2015. It is made of solid white chalk intricately carved with lozenges, zigzags and chevrons: an object infinitely delicate. "It is friable, we could rub out that decoration easily," said Wilkin.

As he described the ways in which he was trying understand the patternings on its surface, I could see his reverence for the thing, his tenderness, his curatorship - in the pure sense of taking care. The dead children with whom it had lain in the earth for 5,000 years were not abstract to him: he told me he had been researching it when he and his partner had their own first baby. When I asked him what he had thought when he first heard that a colleague was suspected of damaging or stealing 2,000 objects, he paused and for a moment I almost thought he might weep, or shout. "I think I felt a kind of disbelief that that was a conceivable thing to do," he said, quietly.

Perhaps the greatest factor in any thief's favour was that the museum did not quite know what it had. Many of the objects stolen had never been formally registered - that is, fully recorded and given a museum number - or photographed and entered on to the museum's digital database. Sir Mark Jones, the interim director after Hartwig Fischer's resignation, pledged that everything in the collection would be entered into this database by the end of 2029. But even with £5m in the budget for the task, some are unsure it can be achieved. One senior curator told me that only 10% of the thousands of pottery shards in his part of the collection have been fully documented on the system. Dealing with the remaining 90% is a gargantuan task. "If I did literally only that for the next five years, maybe it would be possible," he said. "People seem to think we have minions. I don't have minions. It's just me."

The scale of the task is as confounding as the scale of the museum's collection. The keeper of prints and drawings, Hugo Chapman, told me that his section, which contains about 1m things from Michelangelo to Hockney, took 31 years to digitise. Jones told me that to understand the museum at all, it was necessary to think of it as more like a library than a museum. "What we are is an archive of material culture," he said.

Millions of its objects are not displayable. The museum's collection grew fastest between the 1970s and the 90s. But 70% of the 1.7m objects that entered the collection then were unlovely looking bits of broken pottery, tile and brick from archaeological digs in Britain. A third of the collection is now made up of such material. (The excavations that swelled the stores so dramatically tracked construction booms and the building of Britain's motorways.) In previous centuries this type of thing would have been disposed of, and only the more obviously impressive things kept, but from the 70s onwards the habit was to keep everything, anticipating the moment when fresh scientific techniques might reveal new knowledge.

It was in a series of immense new warehouses on the outskirts of Reading, in April last year, that I began to have some dim feel of the scale of the collection - though it seems impossible that any single human mind could contain the whole of it. ("Even at the end of my term I was constantly discovering, for example, that to my amazement we had the definitive collection of the Phoenician presence in Sardinia, for example," former director Neil MacGregor told me.) Here, 40 minutes by bus from the railway station (taxis not claimable on expenses by curators), is the new British Museum Archaeological Research Collection.

This is the building that will house the great overspill, objects that were until recently kept in the former Post Office Savings Bank HQ in West Kensington. It has bright study rooms, smooth, wide corridors and modern laboratories, and is convenient for the motorway and Heathrow, and thus for dispatching or receiving loans. It seems built for giants, and the sunlight washes in. The atmosphere is nothing like the dim, archaic corridors of the mothership in Bloomsbury. It feels like some kind of escape craft - the vessel in which a chosen few will flee this planet, taking with it mysterious fragments of its civilisations.

Except, that is, for the things that got away. In a corridor off the Greek and Roman study room in the Bloomsbury HQ, a six-strong team of academic sleuths is working to track down the gems that went missing from the strongroom. Tom Harrison, keeper of the department of Greece and Rome, who arrived at the museum in January 2023, as the losses at the museum were starting to be understood, presides over the group of art market specialists and scholars. They follow the money, stalking the gems through sales data from eBay, on which they were sold for as little as £50, and PayPal. Some have passed through multiple hands and into different countries.

As not all the missing objects had been photographed and described on the museum's internal database (and where they had, the database may have been interfered with), the scholars have also had to reconstruct what the museum actually owned. Most of the lost gems came from the collection of the 18th-century connoisseur Charles Townley, so this work of reconstruction includes scrutinising 19th-century registration books, going through the 4,500 letters in the Townley archive, reviewing drawings he commissioned, studying an unpublished catalogue made in 1814, and tracking down wax impressions of intaglios and cameos made at the time (these last can be incredibly precise, showing up even, say, the tiny bubbles in glass gems that differentiate two objects cast in from the same mould).

In one of the offices used by the team is a kind of crime wall, with colour-coded, photocopied images of gems. The work relies on patience, dogged archival skills, acute visual memory, forensic ability to follow financial trails, and, in the end, charm and persuasion when confronting current possessors of items (according to Harrison, most have been cooperative; the museum offers to compensate them with the amount they paid). "I dream about the gems every single night," said Ollie Croker, one of the project curators.

When I visited in the spring, they had found or recovered 626 items of the missing 1,500 (the remaining 500 or so of the 2,000 items were damaged). The figure now stands at 649. This is just for the recovery process: the police investigation is also grindingly slow. "There is steady progress," said Harrison, "but occasionally, I worry about the mad scale of it. If you imagine 1,500 objects: some have gone out into the world in groups, but lots of them have gone by different routes, they've gone to multiple places, they are in lots of different countries." When the team pins down a gem's location, a handbell is rung in celebration.

Can the museum emerge from the crisis? Can it recover internal morale, get back the missing objects, reframe itself as something other than the museum that stole its contents? Some insiders I spoke to were optimistic: the new director's honeymoon period might have passed, but it was still better than the situation under Fischer, when the place had been run, one staffer told, me, "like North Korea" by a small group of his subordinates. The curatorial staff are not made up of pith-helmeted imperialists, as outsiders might imagine, but internal conversations about, say, decolonisation are not heard publicly, and staffers sometimes fear speaking out. One trustee told me: "The museum is like a volcano with a thick crust of solidified lava on the top - the senior management."

For the museum to remake itself in the public imagination, there will have to be movement on the most publicly controversial issues: the Benin bronzes and the Parthenon sculptures. The new Labour government seems open to the possibility of a partnership that might see the sculptures in Athens in return for loans from Greece to London. Some are sceptical: George Osborne, the chair, has advanced towards a deal without fellow trustees or staff always being in the loop, and without a proper process being put in place. MacGregor is cautious. "What is so concerning about the Parthenon conversation, is that nobody is saying what are the principles on which the removal of the objects from the public in London is being proposed. And it would be a permanent removal: Greek politicians acknowledge that Parthenon sculptures returning to Greece would not be able to leave again."

MacGregor's formulation of the British Museum as "a museum of the world, for the world" still holds, at least according to him. A global hub for scholarship, open to all. "And one of the reasons it works," he said, "is because the UK now has a global population whose stories are in the British Museum." But many aren't so sure. "You can say it's a museum of the world for the world, but the world hasn't agreed that," said a former senior manager.

When I visited the Reading storage centre in mid-2024, it was just beginning to be filled up: box after box marked "Mucking" had come in, the name of a village in Essex where the largest excavation in Britain, covering settlements from the neolithic to the medieval period, took place in the 1960s and 70s. Hangar-like halls were starting to be populated, too, with casts of Greek sculpture, their crates stacked with maximum efficiency using software used in the airline freight industry: you could see their disembodied limbs, their headless bodies. In one room, a carefully wrapped Mexican Day of the Dead sculpture loomed over a cast of a Celtic cross, a skidoo and a rickshaw. The whole place reminded me of Jorge Luis Borges's story about a map of the world made at exactly 1:1 scale. It felt as if the museum could contain everything that had ever been made.

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'The ghosts are everywhere': can the British Museum survive its omni-crisis?

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Beset by colonial controversy, difficult finances and the discovery of a thief on the inside, Britain's most visited museum is in deep trouble. Can it restore its reputation?

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Historic institution is planning a £150,000 makeover after a string of controversies

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The Art Newspaper - International art news and events

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The words "transgender" and "queer" were on Thursday removed from a National Park Service (NPS) web page about the Stonewall National Monument, a historic site in New York's West Village dedicated to the gay rights movement.

The NPS, which oversees the national monument, previously stated on this page that "before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ+) person was illegal. The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGBTQ+ civil rights and provided momentum for a movement."

The page now only refers to lesbian, gay and bisexual people, and the letters "T" and "Q" have been dropped, along with the "+" symbol. A related page that previously explained the different flags used to celebrate LGBTQ+ identities and groups, such as intersex awareness, non-binary pride and straight allies, as well as the days on which these flags would be flown at the site, has been almost entirely wiped of information.

A offering a virtual photography exhibition now describes the Stonewall uprising as "a watershed moment for LGB rights". Text in the bottom right hand corner of the page confirms that it was last updated on 13 February 2025.

What is The Stonewall National Monument?

The Stonewall National Monument site encompasses 7.7 acres surrounding the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street, a bar where a police raid in 1969 against gay patrons sparked protests and led to a nation-wide movement for queer rights. Two of the leaders of the revolution were the late Black transgender performer Marsha P. Johnson and the transgender activist, Sylvia Rivera.

A photograph of Rivera on the NPS site was previously captioned: "At a young age Sylvia began fighting for gay and transgender rights while also helping homeless young drag queens, like herself, gay youth, and trans people." The word "transgender" has since been removed, although the phrase "trans people" remains.

Similarly, a photograph of Zazu Nova, identified by many eyewitnesses as the person who may have thrown the "first brick" at the Stonewall Uprising, previously included a caption that described her as a "black transgender woman". It now describes her as a "black woman".

The NPS's move comes as the administration of US president Donald Trump pushes federal agencies to recognise , deny access to , and bar transgender athletes from participating in .

Diversity, equity and inclusion under Trump

It now appears that the Trump administration is working to rewrite how US history and culture is presented to the American people. Recently, concerns have been rising that NPS pages dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion, another target of the Trump administration, would be removed. Several such pages were inaccessible at the end of January, including the Stonewall web page.

The Art Newspaper documented at least 20 additional pages, including those about the Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II, Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial, and a page on "Transgender History in the US and the Places that Matter", that showed a "Temporary Server Error (503)" or other loading issues.

Most of these were reinstated by the start of February, but others, including a page at the Grand Canyon National Park, a page explaining "" and a page dedicated to in the NPS have either been removed or are marked "Page In-Progress".

Ellen Sato Faust, the executive director of the association connected to the Bainbridge Island site, said in an email that she immediately reached out to the superintendent of the Seattle Area NPS sites when the earlier loading problems occurred, "but no one was able to provide an explanation for what caused the issue with our page".

Eric Muller, a board member of the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation and a legal professional and scholar of Japanese incarceration, said via email that while he was unable to speak for the board about the circumstances around the NPS page, it did concern him. "It's hard to say how widespread the confusion is about how to handle depictions/interpretations of history" among those employed by the government, he added.

But, linking to a recent instance of apparently mistaken self-censorship at the National Cryptologic Museum, he said: "This sure is worrisome."

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Mentions of 'transgender' and 'queer' removed from US government website dedicated to Stonewall National Monument

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Other pages on the National Park Service site related to diversity, equity and inclusion also appear affected

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Leaving X can be a tricky decision for brands during ‘generation Xodus’

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Why leaving X can be a tricky decision for companies

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Many companies have left X but it’s not always a simple decision.

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“Tariff changes will also be introduced from next January so non-EU residents - including UK tourists - pay more to visit.”

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Mona Lisa to be moved as part of major Louvre overhaul

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France’s president says a second museum entrance will be built, while non-EU residents will also pay more to visit.

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Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family who control it have agreed to pay up to $7.4bn (£6bn) to settle claims regarding its powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin.

The deal represents an increase of more than $1bn on a previous settlement that was rejected in 2024 by the US Supreme Court, according to news agencies AP and Reuters.

Under the terms of the settlement, the Sacklers agreed to pay up to $6.5bn and Purdue to pay $900m.

Oxycontin, often an entryway into harder drugs like heroin, has been blamed for supercharging the deadly opioid crisis in America, and generated billions of dollars for the Sackler family.

"We are extremely pleased that a new agreement has been reached that will deliver billions of dollars to compensate victims, abate the opioid crisis, and deliver treatment and overdose rescue medicines that will save lives," Purdue said in a statement.

The deal still needs court approval, and some of the details are yet to be ironed out, but AP says it is among the largest settlements reached in a series of lawsuits by local, state, Native American tribal governments and others seeking to hold companies responsible for the deadly epidemic.

Under President Donald Trump, the federal government is not expected to oppose the new deal, according to AP.

Connecticut attorney General William Tong told Reuters that the settlement would help provide closure to victims of the opioid crisis.

"It's not just about the money," Tong said. "There is not enough money in the world to make it right."

Since 1999, a few years after the drug became available, deaths from opioid overdoses surged to tens of thousands annually.

Court filings allege the Sackler family was long aware of the legal risks, and withdrew some $11bn from the company in the decade before its bankruptcy. They stashed much of the money overseas, while using some of it to pay company taxes, making recovery difficult.

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Purdue and Sackler family agree $7.4bn OxyContin settlement

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Under the terms, the opioid maker agreed to pay $900m, and the family behind it agreed to pay up to $6.5bn.

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Sneaky Britain? How our moral compasses are changing

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Could the popularity of The Traitors link to something wider going on among Britons - and our shifting attitudes towards dishonesty?

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Ethics in fashion discussed in ‘Bedazzled’ interpretation 

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Ethics in fashion discussed in ‘Bedazzled’ interpretation 

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British Museum exhibition accused to distorting Tibetan Cultural Heritage to Chinese narrative

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British Museum exhibition accused to distorting Tibetan Cultural Heritage to Chinese narrative

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British Museum faces backlash over use of “Xizang” for Tibet - Phayul

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Phayul.com is one of the most popular & successful Tibetan news website in English. With daily readers touching over 12,500 and still growing. It features news and views on Tibet.

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British expertise enlisted to promote cultural heritage and creativity in Saudi Arabia

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UK government signs deals to share UK’s top-tier cultural and creative expertise with Saudi Arabia.

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I love being a culture warrior, says Tory leader Badenoch

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I love being a culture warrior, says Conservative leader Badenoch

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She told centre-right politicians in Washington she loved the title, even though it was meant to be an insult.

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Reclaiming Heritage: The Global Push for Repatriation of Looted Artifacts - Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly

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The global push to repatriate looted cultural artifacts has grown. Recent successes have underscored the moral imperative to restore cultural artifacts to address colonial-era injustices and heal generational trauma.

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Parthenon Sculptures: Momentum Builds For Reunification – Greek City Times

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Momentum builds for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures as the Greek PM prepares for talks with the UK PM in December. While the British Museum remains cautious on the issue of ownership, a new proposal suggests long-term loans as a pathway to returning the sculptures to Athens, even without resolving the legal complexities. This potential solution, championed by Guggenheim President Mariet Westermann, highlights a shift towards collaborative museum practices in the 21st century.

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What would an ethical museum look like? 

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What would an ethical museum look like? 

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Archaeology and anthropology museum at IU recommits to honoring indigenous cultures

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The museum’s executive director said she hopes to emphasize indigenous voices. “We’re really committed and dedicated to being a better institution.”

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Museums change their story - American Natural History Museum NYC

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Museums change their story - American Natural History Museum NYC

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It’s been said that history is written by the victors. The American Museum of Natural History in New York City and other museums around the world are working to change that. Aware that their collections often reflect bygone attitudes of colonialism, they are rethinking their role and approach.

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The fierce battle over the 'Holy Grail' of shipwrecks

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The fraught battle over the holy grail of shipwrecks

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Colombia and a US firm are fighting over a shipwreck in the Caribbean Sea that could be worth $18bn.

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A stolen skull, a severed statue and an Australian city divided

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William Crowther: A severed statue divides an Australian city

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Hobart is grappling with the legacy of a surgeon who allegedly mutilated an Aboriginal man’s remains.

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The Art Newspaper - International art news and events

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Over 50% of gallerists have a poor work-life balance, with those in the US most acutely affected

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A new survey reveals that fewer than half of gallery employees feel like their lives are well-balanced

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Change urged for British Museum's anti-slavery work

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British Museum: Artists urge change for anti-slavery work

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A group of artists say the project presented “challenges” around pay, support and representation.

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BBC angle seems to be questioning why art isn’t being sold off!

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‘Bankrupt’ Birmingham City Council owns art worth £451m

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Birmingham City Council says it will not sell any despite only 1% being on display.

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Unethical disposal could endanger public trust, say museum bodies - Museums Association

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Arts Council England releases joint statement on financially motivated sales from collections

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Ukrainian interest in heritage revived 🇺🇦 

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Ukrainian interest in heritage revived 🇺🇦 

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Heritage under attack: Ukrainians revive interest in culture

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Hundreds of cultural sites have been targeted in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began.

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Museums Galleries Scotland new social media strategy - conscientious communication

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Museums Galleries Scotland new social media strategy - conscientious communication

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Museums Galleries Scotland, the development and funding body for Scotland's non-national museums, is to "significantly scale back" its presence on X (formerly Twitter) as part of a new social media strategy.

In a blog announcing the strategy, the organisation said it was important "that our social media aligns with our organisational values and the objectives of Scotland's museums and galleries strategy".

"Our new strategy has been shaped by a desire for accessible, inclusive, and conscientious communication," said the blog.

"It also takes into account the recent engagement levels we've observed on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter), our current social media platforms."

The organisation said that while it had seen a healthy increase in its engagement on LinkedIn, its performance on X "has been in decline".

"Our 2023 sector-wide communications survey revealed that most respondents had either already left X or were strongly considering leaving," said the blog.

"The majority of respondents indicated that they currently use Facebook and Instagram to stay updated with sector news, such as events and funding, and to engage with their audiences.

"With all this in mind, we've decided to scale back significantly on X and join Instagram and Facebook. We're excited to continue to amplify the work of the sector through these new channels and hope to reach wider demographics that we haven't been engaging with on X or LinkedIn."

The organisation said it would experiment with content as it establishes its presence on the new platforms and would continue to monitor its presence across all social media.

"We also remain conscious of the increasing role of X in escalating divisive rhetoric, and are regularly reviewing our decision to participate in this channel," the blog said.

The announcement follows controversy over the platform's role in this month's far-right riots, which were partly sparked by racist disinformation spread on social media platforms in the wake of the tragic murder of three children in Southport.

UK prime minister Keir Starmer clashed with the billionaire owner of X, Elon Musk, after the latter wrote on X that "civil war is inevitable" following the riots. A number of Labour MPs, including Home Office minister Jess Phillips, have since announced that they are scaling back their use of the platform or quitting it altogether.

Several museums have closed or suspended their X accounts recently due to what they describe as escalating levels of social media backlash, including Weston-super-Mare Museum and the People's History Museum. However others in the sector say it continues to be an essential marketing and networking platform.

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Museums Galleries Scotland to 'significantly scale back' presence on X

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Organisation launches new social media strategy based on 'conscientious communication'

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The Art Newspaper - International art news and events

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As the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and copyright continues to develop in the legal sphere, a group of visual artists have scored a small victory in court. On 12 August, US District Judge William Orrick ruled that the companies Stability AI, Midjourney, DeviantArt and Runway AI were violating artists' rights by illegally storing their works in their image generation systems.

While Orrick refused to dismiss trademark claims related to the matter, he threw out accusations of unjust enrichment and breach of contract, in addition to allegations that the companies' behaviours were in violation of a second US copyright law, reported.

The plaintiffs-illustrators Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan and Karla Ortiz-first sued the AI companies in January 2023 in a landmark lawsuit against tech companies engaging in AI training. Judge Orrick dismissed most of their allegations last October, but allowed the artists to re-file. The original three plaintiffs, along with seven others who joined the lawsuit, returned with amendments in November, arguing that Stability AI's Stable Diffusion model, which all the companies used, unlawfully contained "compressed copies" of their artwork.

In May, Judge Orrick decided in a tentative ruling to allow the copyright allegations to continue.

"The plausible inferences at this juncture are that Stable Diffusion by operation by end users creates copyright infringement and was created to facilitate that infringement by design," Judge Orrick said.

This week's ruling did not take on the central points of contention in the case-that the artists' work was used to train AI systems in violation of their copyright. The AI companies claimed fair use, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act claims were ultimately dismissed with prejudice.

Lawyers for artists, Joseph Saveri and Matthew Butterick of Saveri Law Firm, called the decision "a significant step forward for the case" in a statement.

Judge Orrick's ruling was delivered before a court hearing that was scheduled for today (14 August).

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US artists score victory in landmark AI copyright case

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A federal judge in California has blocked an attempt by several AI companies to have portions of a copyright case dismissed

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The British Museum in London. David Liff/License: CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia

The British Museum has finished investigating its own conduct and concluded that it broke the law after it discovered last year that thousands of artifacts had disappeared from its collection.

The museum confirmed last December that around 2,000 items went missing and its top brass admitted that they might be "unrecoverable" after being "sold for scrap" or defaced. The admission sparked the British Museum to do an internal audit, which has now found that it was not compliant with UK legislation dictating how national treasures should be kept.

UK museums and libraries are required to "meet basic standards of preservation, access, and professional care" under the Public Records Act. The law also states that items should be "in the care of suitably qualified staff," the Times reports.

Any organizations that do not maintain these standards are at risk of seeing their collection transferred elsewhere or handed over to the National Archives. However, someone from the British Museum reportedly said there was no suggestion the museum will suffer this fate, despite its admitted wrongdoing.

The former chancellor and chairman of trustees at the museum, George Osborne, and Nicholas Cullinan, the British Museum's director, wrote in its 2024 report that "a number of actions are currently being considered by management, who are continuing to work with the National Archives towards compliance."

As many as 1,500 items are feared to have been stolen as of 2023, while around 350 objects had parts removed, like gems or gold. So far, more than 600 objects have been returned with the help of the FBI. Osborne said this is "far more than many predicted we could recover."

Peter Higgs, a senior curator at the museum, was fired in July 2023 after the museum accused him of stealing 1,800 items, estimated to be worth $130,000, over a decade. While Higgs denies the allegations and has yet to be charged with any offense, the museum announced that it was suing him earlier this year.

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British Museum Finds Itself Guilty of Breaking UK Law for Mistreating Collection After 2,000 Items Disappeared

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British Museum has concluded an internal audit of its handling of its collection and found itself guilty of breaking UK law.

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