ARTICLE: Who owns art?

[ENCATC Understanding Heritage]

As across the globe, countries and ethnic groups ask for indigenous artworks housed in the West to be returned, questions are being raised around cultural patrimony. It is important now to find ways to “share” a global heritage more widely and fairly.

If there was little debate about the return of Nazi-looted art after WWII – some kind of restitution policy was only right – this was strikingly different from the debates around the return of objects from previously-colonised countries such as India, Egypt, Greece or Nigeria, or countries such as China that were weakened by the overt presence of Western powers.

Read the full article: http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/vishakha-n-desai-on-the-need-to-share-global-cultural-heritage-widely-and-fairly/article8341767.ece