Campaign to Repatriate Cultural Loot
2005 / Campaign Strategy & Design
The campaign is an effort to highlight the shockingly high number of art objects in our museums that have been illegally removed from their native countries, and to rally public support for efforts to repatriate significant instances of such plunder
The language and typography co-opt and subvert the jingoist rhetoric often employed in anti-immigration campaigns, to focus attention on the core prejudices which allow "advanced" nations to hold the artistic legacy of other cultures hostage.
The first execution of the campaign joins the current debate around the Parthenon Marbles, currently held in the British Museum, which has repeatedly refused requests made by Greece to return the Marbles to their rightful home in Athens. The campaign is to be effected through public posters and free postcards in both countries.
More recently, French president Emanuel Macron has pledged to repatriate African artifacts held in French museums. The German government, however, has failed to match this progressive stance. To say nothing of the utter intransigence of the Brits.