Upcoming online talk 'Distinction Without a Difference? Natural vs. Cultural Heritage in the Spotlight of Restitution Claims'

• What: talk with Q&A, titled "Distinction Without a Difference? Natural vs. Cultural Heritage in the Spotlight of Restitution Claims"
• When: 12 March 2025, 1.00 - 2.00 pm (GMT+1)
• Where: Zoom (please register via humanities@mfn.berlin)
• Abstract: The extent to which museums have been affected by the recent 'turn to restitution' is highly dependent on whether they house cultural or natural artifacts. The underlying assumption, sometimes tacit, sometimes vocally expressed, is that there is something apolitical, sterile about natural heritage which immunises it against allegedly partisan or nationalist restitution claims. This talk calls that assumption into question. In particular, it argues that the distinction between natural and cultural heritage under international law hardly has any bearing on the issue of restitution. Instead, it proposes to consider restitution claims as valid if they concern objects that enjoy a certain scientific, cultural, or otherwise significant human appreciation, and to which the claimant has a sufficient affiliation. This approach replaces the mistaken dichotomy 'cultural vs. natural' with a more nuanced perspective that aligns with the relevant international legal framework and opens up space for constructive conversations about the restitution of the broadest possible range of objects.

This event is part of an online lecture series on "Heritage and Justice: Unpacking Legal Narratives in Natural History." It has been running since November 2024 and will feature two more talks in March 2025 before its conclusion. A full programme can be found here. The series is organised by the Center for the Humanities of Nature at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. The Center does a lot of trailblazing research: often on the colonial provenance of natural history collections, and often on other important subjects which demonstrate that natural history does not exist within a vacuum but amidst many of those issues we're only used to discussing in the context of ethnographical museums. This lecture series brings perspectives from law and justice to the natural history realm and thus makes a contribution that is sorely needed and long overdue; I've called for it already back in 2022 in a post on Völkerrechtsblog.