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鈥檚 Struggle for Its Art, B茅n茅dicte Savoy brings to light this largely unknown but deeply important history. One of the world鈥檚 foremost experts on restitution and cultural heritage, Savoy investigates extensive, previously unpublished sources to reveal that the roots of the struggle extend much further back than prominent recent debates indicate, and that these efforts were covered up by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.
About the Author
B茅n茅dicte Savoy is professor in the Department of Art History at the Technical University of Berlin and was professor at the Coll猫ge de France in Paris from 2016 to 2021. She is the coeditor of Translocations: Histories of Dislocated Cultural Assets; Acquiring Cultures: Histories of World Art on Western Markets; and The Museum Is Open: Towards a Transnational History of Museums. She is the author (with Felwine Sarr) of The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage: Toward a New Relational Ethics, known as the Sarr-Savoy Report. She lives in Berlin.