Ownership and the Price of Empire

This immersive, interactive display encourages you to engage with debates and dialogue around the repatriation of ‘stolen’ museum objects implicated by Britain’s imperial past. Participate in processes of decolonisation and feel first-hand its implications by considering how we transform our museums for the twenty-first century.

As an immersive piece, you will get the chance to hold an significant object in your hands! You take it on a journey to discover more about it’s past, including where it comes from, how it got to be where it is today, and what might happen to it in the future. This includes the role that technology may play. It seeks to make you think and play an active, understanding, role in the debate around decolonising museums.

Read more about the project on the History Matters website.

Additional Resources

‘Gandhara Connections’ at the University of Oxford – for more information on Gandharan art: https://www.carc.ox.ac.uk/GandharaConnections/

The Gandhara School at the British Museum – for an overview of the 766 objects in that collection: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/x23061

The Unfiltered History Tour of the British Museum – to ‘hear stories of disputed artefacts, as told by people from their homelands’: https://theunfilteredhistorytour.com/ 

‘Decolonising Museums’ – for more information from the Museums Associations on their initiatives: https://www.museumsassociation.org/campaigns/decolonising-museums/#Sheffield Museums – for more information on our partner institution: https://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/about/