Discussions about the return of colonial objects have been high on the political agenda for some time. A new exhibition at the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren explores this contested heritage and how it should be approached in the future.
Belgium has a dark colonial past and its colonial king, Leopold II – who for decades exploited the Congolese for personal gain during which he enslaved its people, plundered its resources, and left a death toll in the millions – can be considered one of the most violent rulers, even by the standards of 19th-century imperialism.
While the severity of this cannot be underestimated, the country has in recent years become a forerunner specifically in provenance research, and is working on returning all items illegally obtained by Belgium between 1885 and 1960 to Congo.
Since 2022, Belgium has had a legal framework for the return of looted objects, and the AfricaMuseum, where the majority of these objects are kept, is now working alongside the Congolese to progress this project. In total, the museum holds 128,000 cultural objects, the vast majority of which, about 80,000, come from Congo.
The AfricaMuseum also opened a new exhibition titled 'ReThinking Collections' on Friday 19 January, researching the origins of art and cultural objects and how they ended up in Belgium. Many objects are controversial as they were brought to the museum through violence, theft or manipulation, a matter on which the expo is transparent.
Credit: Africa Museum
The exhibition attempts to shed light on the many approaches to provenance research and the current issues surrounding it. It explains how the museum traces the origin of collections, how the research is done and what new insights can be gleaned from these provenances. ReThinking Collections showcases some 60 objects that have been subjected to such research.
But it also explores what should become of such colonial collections, within and beyond museum walls, and highlights that the question of whether an object should be returned should not depend solely on provenance research.
The expo will run until the end of September. More information can be found here.
