Exhibition View of “Looted Art, the Benin Bronzes”-at MKG in Hamburg (foto Michaela Hille) ‘The Idea is Not to Empty Museums’, Authors of France S Blockbuster Restitution Report Say Their Work has Been Mis Represented Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy say the media misunderstood their argument and oversimplified their ideas. The authors of the pivotal restitution report commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron, which critics said called for the near complete evacuation of African objects from French museums, want to set the record straight. In November, economist Felwine Sarr and art historian Bénédicte Savoy published a sprawling 252-page document compiling mountains of research, arguing that it was time for France to reconsider its position (https://news.artnet.com/art-world/french-restitution-policy-macron-1399429) on objects taken from sub-Saharan Africa and held in national museums. The pair quickly became the public faces of a rising global movement questioning the legitimacy of the West’s retention of objects with troubling provenance. But Sarr and Savoy say some of the media and critic responses misconstrued their arguments, in some cases, to incite unnecessary fears. ‘Stop Scaring People’ Since the report went live, the duo have been stressing in their interviews with the media that, no, the point is not to empty museums, … Meer lezen over Kate Brown – ‘The Idea Is Not to Empty Museums’, Authors of France S Blockbuster Restitution Report Say Their Work has Been Mis Represented