As is typical for the show, the most recent edition of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver covered a wide range of topics before getting into its major feature, which examined the colonialist past and unethical present-day practices of British Museums. The show’s producers may seem to pick topics at random at times, but the focus of today’s major part is on an issue that has recently been back in the news. The history of how museums obtain artefacts is convoluted beyond belief and has its roots in colonialism. John Oliver introduced the new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, before getting into the main subject.
This politician has just been in office for a month, yet she’s already dealing with a major issue. In the wake of criticism over her handling of the UK’s energy issue, the politician just vanished. The prime minister’s decision to avoid the public eye for many days at this crucial period enraged even some of her own party members. The central plot of the show likewise has to do with British citizens. The problem of unethical museum methods and pieces of art on exhibition is not exclusive to the United Kingdom, but Last Week Tonight used The British Museum as an example to highlight a larger issue that affects a vast number of western displays.
Whenever European empires subjugated other nations, the art (and culture, by extension) was seized as plunder with little consideration to how this may affect the development of the local community, as current reports disclose and even blockbusters like Marvel’s Black Panther have decried. The argument goes down to basic logic; of course, those priceless cultural artefacts were stolen during a bygone era, when kings believed they had the right to steal anything they pleased from colonial countries. However, museums are now under pressure to return objects that chronicle the history of African countries; the Benin Bronzes, which were stolen from Nigeria, are a prime example of this.
Items of this nature should be sent back to the nations from where they were originally exported since doing otherwise defies logic. There are some museums and libraries that are willing to restore donated things to their rightful owners, although doing so can take a long time and meet with some pushback. Even worse, many things of inestimable value are not even on exhibit. They’ve been stored in boxes, and as Kim Kardashian showed, there are still examples of art being purchased in questionable ways by organisations that are meant to be serious and law-abiding in the 21st century.