Case Studies | UK restitutions
Case Studies
An archive of historical restitutions made by UK institutions. These case studies highlight how and why restitutions have come about.
Articles with up to date facts, information and current research to ensure the debate is better informed
One of the National Museum of Scotland’s largest exhibits, an 11-metre memorial totem pole, has been repatriated to the Nisga’a Museum in the village of Laxgalts’ap in British Columbia after the Museum in Edinburgh recognised it was sold “without the cultural, spiritual or political authority” of its owners
The V&A Museum has entered into an historic agreement with the Republic of Yemen for the Museum to temporarily care, research and conserve four ancient carved funerary stelae
This week’s ceremony at the Manchester Museum marking the return of 174 cultural artefacts to a delegation from the Aboriginal Anindilyakwa community of Groote Eylandt, northern Australia, is the second major restitution event led by the Museum in collaboration with AIATSIS
James Cook's sailing of HMS Endeavour into a well-sheltered bay now known as Botany Bay (Kamay) in April 1770 marked the first-ever contact by British mariners with the Indigenous people of eastern Australia
Facing a growing number of claims for repatriation, Glasgow took the crucial but unusual decision for a City Council in 1998 to set up a cross-party working group to help the city develop a more strategic approach to returning contested artefacts
The University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) became one of the first museums in the UK to return artefacts to a source country when it returned a group of sacred relics to Uganda in 1961
South London’s Horniman Museum and Gardens is the latest institution to agree returning ownership of its Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. A consultation the Museum held in autumn 2020 with members of the Nigerian diaspora community over the future of 72 objects looted from Benin City played a key role in the unanimous decision of the trustees to return the Bronzes
When retired doctor Mark Warner travelled to the Oba’s palace in Benin City on 20 June 2014 to present the elderly Oba Erediauwa with a pair of Benin Bronzes from his grandfather’s collection, he never envisaged how this single event would resonate across the entire museum community
At a handover ceremony in Exeter this week, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery returned Chief Crowfoot’s sacred regalia to representatives of the Siksika Nation, a repatriation event agreed by the RAMM in April 2020 but delayed by Covid.
The caribou coat tradition was widespread with hunters and in ceremonies among Indigenous groups in northern Quebec, in particular among Cree, Inns, Naskapi and Montagnais
Today, Jesus College became the first institution in the world to return a Benin Bronze to Nigeria at a handover ceremony held in Cambridge
Can a series of long-term, renewable loans ever provide a viable solution to the restitution debate, especially within the seemingly inflexible UK state museum sector?
While members of the Benin Dialogue Group continue to resist the full repatriation of thousands of looted objects now in western collections, others behave more decisively.
After assurances about the future ownership and long-term preservation of regalia that once belonged to Chief Crowfoot, Exeter City Council finally voted to repatriate this regalia to the Siksika Nation in southern Alberta.
Jesus College, Cambridge's return of a Benin Bronze statue of a cockerel to the Court of Benin is a prompt and effective response by a British institution, committed to engage in a rigorous investigation of its links with colonisation and the slave trade.
Manchester Museum has announced the return of 43 Aboriginal ceremonial and secret sacred objects, collected on James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific (1768-1771).
Ethiopia's Minister of Culture and Tourism described the National Army Museum's agreement to return two locks of hair, removed from the body of the Abyssinian Emperor Tewodros II, as a "brave and principled decision".
Following a succession of other repatriations by British collections, London's Natural History Museum has taken another step towards returning indigenous human remains to their country of origin.
In a decision described as "common sense", London's Natural History Museum agreed to return the human remains of 18 Aboriginal people.
Because Reverend John McLuckie had visited Ethiopia as a student, he was able to identify and grasp the true significance of a wooden plaque he discovered in 2001 in a Scottish Episcopal church in Edinburgh.
The ethical case for returning a Lakota Ghost Dance shirt to the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center in the United States was overwhelming. What's more, no legal restrictions stood in the way of repatriation.
The repatriation of a necklace and bracelet by the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter in 1995 to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community owed much to the high level of goodwill and respect shown towards each other.
Glasgow City Council's return of human skulls collected from North Queensland, Australia was achieved with speed and minimal fuss.
A decision by the Wellcome Trust in 1977 to dispose of all non-medical material from their collection triggered a gift of 93 Himyaritic objects to the Yemeni Museum Service four years later.
A royal cap and great seal that once belonged to the Abyssinian Emperor Tewodros II, returned by Queen Elizabeth II in 1965, was not the first time a British monarch had returned items seized at the Battle of Maqdala.
For the British authorities, the seizure of the royal regalia from Mandalay into the 'safekeeping' of the South Kensington (now V&A) Museum was a logical act of imperial authority.
