A new exhibition of intricate paintings opens up a wider debate about who gets to see them and how<\/p>\n
Towards the end of last year, Rishi Sunak went to a small amount of trouble to get a large degree of attention. The prime minister blew off a meeting with his counterpart who was over from Athens, because the Greek leader was publicly demanding the return of the Parthenon marbles<\/a>. Rather than discuss that issue face to face, Mr Sunak indulged in a diplomat\u2019s version of cancel culture \u2013 and much of the press rallied right behind him.<\/p>\n This is where the public debate over art that the British took (other verbs are available) from other countries remains stuck \u2013 in a language and tone that displays the red-faced defiance of an angry toddler. Whether it\u2019s Greek statues or bronzes from the old kingdom of Benin<\/a> (in today\u2019s Nigeria), the response is: it\u2019s not yours, it\u2019s ours. Sticking out one\u2019s tongue may be momentarily satisfying, but it rather gets in the way of a conversation. A country that within living memory ran an empire on which the sun never set has to have a more open and nuanced discussion of how it thinks about, and accounts for, the artefacts it amassed along the way.<\/p>\n