"'Black Panther' raises difficult questions in museum community"

"In one five-minute sequence, “Black Panther” raises issues central to the modern museum world, including cultural appropriation and repatriation, the racial composition of museum staffs, and lingering stereotypes regarding visitors of color. Some of these concerns have been in the public consciousness since the 1980s, when the Greek government began campaigning forcefully — and so far unsuccessfully — for the British Museum to repatriate the Elgin Marbles, a group of classical sculptures removed from the Parthenon. But these issues have a fresh relevance today as society increasingly shifts away from a Eurocentric points of view and gains a renewed appreciation for the indigenous culture of formerly colonized nations... 

He suspects that when he approached the desk clerks, they didn’t realize that Rucker is the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, or that he will bring his own set of slave shackles along when he delivers a TED talk in Vancouver next month. They just saw a black man who they assumed was uneducated and misinformed, he believes. Instead of contacting a curator, they nodded politely and dismissed what he told them.

“People make a lot of assumptions about who you are based on skin color,” Rucker said. “The experts sometimes don't know as much as people who actually visit museums.”... 

Most U.S. museums were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and for about 100 years, individual collectors and institutions happily snapped up cultural treasures from the world’s great civilizations without asking too many unpleasant questions about the circumstances under which those objects been obtained. Attitudes began to shift in the 1970s after UNESCO adopted provisions allowing for the seizure of stolen artworks if corroborating documentation could be provided. Many museums will say now that they have a policy of not acquiring artworks unless a clear chain of ownership has been established; whether they always adhere strictly to that policy varies by institution."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/movies/bs-fe-black-panther-museums-20180227-story.html