Today I was at the Humboldt Forum for the first time—first time inside the doors, at least, since I had wandered around the outside of the building on the weekend. It is a strange building, at once a fifteenth-century palace (substantially enlarged in the seventeenth century) and a twenty-first-century simulacrum.
A Berlin museum opens fully to the public this week with a very modern take on the display of cultural items from around the world and the debate over demands for some of them to be returned to their homelands. The east wing of the Humboldt Forum contains items from the city’s Ethnological Museum and the Museum for Asian Art. It will display some 20,000 objects, among them dozens of Benin Bronzes that were stolen in Africa during colonial times as well as an exhibit explaining to visitors how most of them are soon to return to Nigeria.
The eastern wing, the last section of the Humboldt Forum museum to be completed, is finally inaugurated. Highlights of the presentation are the Benin Bronzes, considered looted art.
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BERLIN (AP) A Berlin museum opens fully to the public this week with a very modern take on the display of cultural items from around the world and the debate over demands for some of them to be returned to their homelands.