How Often Will Germany Insult Nigeria When Demands Are Made For Restitution Of Looted Artefacts? Listen to article I was moved to silent melancholy at the thought that this assembly of degenerate and feeble-minded posterity should be the legitimate guardians of so much loveliness.” Leo Frobenius, on seeing Ile-Ife art
. (1)
On the occasion of the opening of the Humboldt Forum, Berlin, Nigeria once again asked Germany for the return of looted Nigerian artefacts in Germany. (2)
This was nothing unusual and the response or lack of it, was also not unusual. Germany did not reply to the request of the Nigerian ambassador to Germany, Yusuf Tuggar. A year before the opening, in 2019, Ambassador had made the same request and received no response. Readers can make up their own minds about this undiplomatic behaviour of not responding to a request made by a duly accredited ambassador on behalf of his government. Would Germany have acted this way if the request came from the U.S. or B
Humboldt Forum in Berlin Finally Opens (Kind of)
A modest ceremony inaugurated the troubled museum, one of the most expensive and ambitious culture projects in Europe. The only thing is, you can’t go in.
A courtyard of the Humboldt Forum, which combines Baroque details with stark modern lines.Credit.Felix Brüggemann for The New York Times
By Thomas Rogers
Published Dec. 17, 2020Updated Dec. 22, 2020
BERLIN After years of hand-wringing about its place in German history, strife over the provenance of its objects and delays in its construction, the Humboldt Forum, an attraction in central Berlin conceived as Germany’s equivalent to the Louvre or the British Museum, finally opened with a ceremony on Wednesday.
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A controversial exhibition of colonial artefacts, including those from the Ethnological Museum of Berlin, opened at the Humboldt Forum in Germany on Wednesday.
It marks the culmination of one of Europe s most lavish and divisive cultural projects.
The Humboldt Forum s founders see it as a celebration of Germany s enlightenment, whereas
academics and activists perceive it as a whitewashing of German history and an erasing of the destructive legacy of the First World War.
The museum is
a replica of the Berliner Schloss, or Berlin Palace, which was built by the Hohenzollern dynasty and demolished in 1950 by the East German government.