Cleveland lecturer discusses growing effort to repatriate looted and stolen artifacts

The world’s museums are repositories for culture and history.  Increasingly museums and patrons are asking hard questions about how items were acquired.   It is part of a growing movement to repatriate stolen and looted artifacts and artwork to their nations of origin. 

Last month, thousands of online petitioners in Egypt  asked the British Museum to return the Rosetta Stone.  It wasn’t the first time the request has been made.  But this time, Egyptians are hoping the changing conversation around the long-lasting impacts of racism and colonialism works in their favor.

This year the Smithsonian Institution adopted a new policy authorizing its museums to return items that were stolen, looted, or acquired unethically.

That led to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art returning its collection of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. In September, cultural representatives from 150 countries signed onto a UNESCO declaration in Mexico City that commits to increased efforts to artifacts to their countries of origin.

Later in the show,  for over 20 years, Andy Borowitz, a Shaker Heights native, has been skewering American politics and culture through his satirical column "The Borowitz Report" - which can be found in The New Yorker.

He now has a new book out - his first in 10 years - titled "Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber". In the book, Borowitz argues that over the past 50 years, American politicians have grown increasingly resistant to knowledge. And that mass media have encouraged the election of dimwits, who are better at performing, than they are - governing. 

Elizabeth Hoag, Archaeologist, Lecturer, Cleveland Institute of Art 
Nolan Beck-Rivera, Cleveland Institute of Art Graduate 
Andy Borowitz, Columnist, Author, "Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber"