Battle for the Museums: Fighting Back Against Cultural Colonialism w/ Rachel Spence & Chidi Nwaubani

In this Ethical Matters talk Rachel Spence, author of Battle for the Museum, explores the underlying dark nexus of capital, art and power―and radical resistance movements fighting fiercely for exhibition spaces that serve today’s public.

One digital entrepreneur has taken matters into their own hands. Chidi Nwaubani created project LOOTY, which produces NFTs of looted objects in major institutions and sells them, with 20 percent of the proceeds going to grants for young African artists. Named after a dog taken from China and given to Queen Victoria as a gift, the project contributes to the charged conversations around restitution in a witty and anarchic way. The team executed a digital heist at the British Museum, making detailed scans of the Rosetta Stone that were transported, both physically and digitally, to Rashid, in Egypt, using Geo-located based AR. This allowed for one of the world’s first-ever digitally repatriated artworks to be placed back in its original physical realm.

Journalist Rachel Spence has watched visual arts become a flashpoint for today’s social divisions. She interviews artists, activists, directors and donors, revealing elitism and injustice. Business and finance launder their reputations through patronage, while governments exert authority by weaponising or attacking the arts―and gallery-goers and workers mobilise to demand better. How did we get here, and what awaits these institutions? Rachel’s book, Battle for the Museum will be available on the night.

This event will be held with an in-person audience at Conway Hall and online via livestream. Everyone wishing to join this event must register for a ticket in advance. If you have any accessibility enquiries, please contact [email protected] / 020 7405 1818.

About the book

Culture and power have been bedfellows since ancient times—in the case of exhibits and collections, now more than ever. Protests force out patrons and curators, and pressure museums to abandon fossil fuel sponsorship. Campaigners demand equality and diversity, condemn exploitation of artists and staff, and urge restitution of imperially tainted objects.

Journalist Rachel Spence has watched visual arts become a flashpoint for today’s social divisions. She interviews artists, activists, directors and donors, revealing elitism and injustice. Business and finance launder their reputations through patronage, while governments exert authority by weaponising or attacking the arts—and gallery-goers and workers mobilise to demand better. How did we get here, and what awaits these institutions?

From China and Russia to Helsinki and Brooklyn, from the British Museum to the Louvre and Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi, Battle for the Museum uncovers a dark nexus of capital, art and power—and radical resistance movements fighting fiercely for exhibition spaces that serve today’s public.

About the author

Rachel Spence is an arts writer and poet. Her reviews, features and reporting, chiefly for the Financial Times, often cover freedom of expression, and the politics behind international cultural institutions or programmes. Her poetry collections include Bird of Sorrow; Call and Response; and Venice Unclocked, a journey through Venice.