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Museum Without Objects

The ‘universal museum’ is a product of Enlightenment thinking, with museums such as the Louvre cast in an increasingly ludicrous position as guardians of global heritage. But is there another way?

Visitors at the British Museum walking past the Parthenon marble sculptures.

The Parthenon marbles remain on display at the British Museum despite Greek protests. (Photo by Mike Kemp / In Pictures / Getty Images)

Can the Western museum be decolonised? This is the question posed by Françoise Vergès in A Programme of Absolute Disorder: Decolonising the Museum, which takes its name from French Afro-Caribbean Marxist philosopher Frantz Fanon’s invocation of anti-colonial practice in his influential 1961 book The Wretched of the Earth. In her book, first published in France […]

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