Search results for ""Author Bénédicte Savoy""

A major new history of how African nations, starting in the 1960s, sought to reclaim the art looted by Western colonial powers For decades, African nations have fought for the return of countless works of art stolen during the colonial era and placed in Western museums. In Africa’s Struggle for Its Art, Bénédicte Savoy brings to light this largely unknown but deeply important history. One of the world’s foremost experts on restitution and cultural heritage, Savoy investigates extensive, previously unpublished sources to reveal that the roots of the struggle extend much further back than prominent recent debates indicate, and that these efforts were covered up by myriad opponents.Shortly after 1960, when eighteen former colonies in Africa gained independence, a movement to pursue repatriation was spearheaded by African intellectual and political classes. Savoy looks at pivotal events, including the watershed speech delivered at the UN General Assembly by Zaire’s president, Mobutu Sese Seko, which started the debate regarding restitution of colonial-era assets and resulted in the first UN resolution on the subject. She examines how German museums tried to withhold information about their inventory and how the British Parliament failed to pass a proposed amendment to the British Museum Act, which protected the country's collections. Savoy concludes in the mid-1980s, when African nations enacted the first laws focusing on the protection of their cultural heritage.Making the case for why restitution is essential to any future relationship between African countries and the West, Africa’s Struggle for Its Art will shape conversations around these crucial issues for years to come.

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Not only Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring utilized the occupation of France during the Second World War to procure artworks for their collections — German museums also made acquisitions at the time. The advantageous foreign exchange rate and the large range of artworks, for instance, from seized Jewish property, afforded favorable opportunities. French museums like the Louvre also expanded their holdings during this time. Many purchases by German museums were restituted to France in the postwar period, while some have remained in the collections until today and are first now becoming a focus of research. The essays in the volume from German and French perspectives analyze the similarities and differences in the activities of museums on the French art market during the occupation for the first time. Adolf Hitler et Hermann Göring ne sont pas les seuls à avoir profité de l'Occupation de la France par l’Allemagne pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale pour acquérir des œuvres d'art pour leurs collections - les musées allemands y ont également fait des acquisitions. Le taux de change avantageux et l'offre importante d'œuvres d'art provenant par exemple de propriétés juives spoliées ont offert des opportunités favorables. Les musées français, comme le Louvre, ont également élargi leurs collections à cette époque. De nombreuses acquisitions de musées allemands ont été restituées à la France dans l'après-guerre, mais certaines sont restées dans les collections jusqu'à ce jour et n'ont attiré l'attention des chercheurs que récemment. Les contributions de ce volume analysent pour la première fois, des points de vue français et allemand, les points communs et les différences entre les activités des musées sur le marché de l'art français pendant l'Occupation.

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