The rebuilt Prussian palace is finally open, but the debate about how – and whether – it should house collections from Asia and Africa rumbles on, writes Daniel Trilling
Traces Of Colonialism In Humboldt Forum? Reading Humboldt Forum Short Guide Listen to article
‘And the museums of which M. Caillois is so proud, not for one minute does it cross his mind that, all things considered, it would have been better not to have needed them; that Europe would have done better to tolerate the non-European civilizations at its side, leaving them alive, dynamic and prosperous, whole and not mutilated; to let them develop and fulfil themselves than to present for our admiration, duly labelled, their dead and scattered parts; that anyway, the museum by itself is nothing; that it means nothing, that it can say nothing, when smug self-satisfaction tots the eyes, when a secret contempt for others withers the heart, when racism, admitted or not, dries up sympathy; that it means nothing if its only purpose is to feed the delights of vanity; that after all, the honest contemporary of Saint Louis, who fought Islam but respected it, had a better chance of knowing
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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