来源：《卫报》
原文刊登日期：2023年1月8日
The ceremonial return of 21 Benin bronzes to Nigeria by Germany last month gave the latest powerful signal of how fast the international tide is turning on the repatriation of looted art. The German handover followed an American one two months earlier, when the Smithsonian Institution signed over 29 bronzes in Washington. Both ceremonies turned the spotlight once again on the country whose army was responsible for seizing the bronzes in the first place: Britain.
上个月，德国在仪式上将21件贝宁青铜器归还尼日利亚，这是一个最新的有力信号，表明国际上归还被掠夺艺术品的潮流正在迅速转变。两个月前，史密森尼学会在华盛顿签署转让了29件贝宁青铜器。这两场仪式都将人们的目光再次聚焦到一个国家身上，这个国家的军队要首先为抢夺青铜器负责：英国。
The restitution of artefacts is an old bone of contention that has left the British Museum, in particular, beleaguered on all sides. The defence has often focused on how works arrived in museum collections: whether they were honestly acquired or stolen by individuals or armies. In the case of the Benin bronzes, there is no ambiguity. They were looted in 1897, when British forces sacked the Benin kingdom, in modern-day Nigeria, burning down the royal palace, exiling the ruler, and seizing all royal treasures.
文物的归还是一个由来已久的争论焦点，尤其是大英博物馆，受到了各方的围攻。辩解经常关注作品是如何进入博物馆收藏的：它们是被诚实地收购还是被个人或军队窃取。在贝宁青铜器的例子中，这一点没有争议。贝宁青铜器在1897年被洗劫一空，当时英国军队洗劫了贝宁王国，也就是现在的尼日利亚，烧毁了皇家宫殿，流放了统治者，抢走了所有的皇家宝藏。
Most ended up at auction in London, where an estimated 3,000 objects eventually made their way into museums and private collections around the world. Ownership of more than 1,000 bronzes that ended up in Germany was legally transferred to Nigeria last July, five months before the symbolic handover, in the capital, Abuja, of the 21 outstanding items.
其中大部分最终在伦敦拍卖，估计有3000件物品最终进入了世界各地的博物馆和私人收藏。去年7月，最终在德国的1000多件青铜器的所有权被合法转让给了尼日利亚，五个月后，在首都阿布贾象征性地移交了21件未交付的物品。
Several of the UK’s smaller institutions have also joined the great repatriation of Benin plunder, with the University of Cambridge last month pledging to return more than 100 objects, after similar moves by Jesus College, Cambridge, and the University of Aberdeen. The Horniman Museum in south London returned six bronzes in November.
英国几家规模较小的博物馆也加入了贝宁掠夺物的大归还行动，剑桥大学上个月承诺归还100多件文物，此前剑桥耶稣学院和阿伯丁大学也采取了类似行动。伦敦南部的霍尼曼博物馆于去年11月归还了6件青铜器。
Each handover piles more pressure on the British Museum, which has more than 900 artefacts from Benin in its collection. Unlike its smaller siblings, the British Museum is forbidden by law from disposing of its holdings unless they are duplicates, irreparably damaged or unworthy of a place in the collection.
每一次移交都给大英博物馆带来了更大的压力，该博物馆收藏了900多件来自贝宁的文物。与其他规模较小的博物馆不同，英国法律禁止大英博物馆处置其藏品，除非藏品是复制品、有无法修复的损坏或不值得在馆藏中占有一席之地。
The Benin bronzes cast the legislation in a different light. They might not be duplicates, damaged or unworthy, but there is only room to display 100 of them at any one time in the British Museum, making them a prime hostage of what the Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell has described as the “dragon psychology” of modern museums: an instinct to hoard for hoarding’s sake.
贝宁青铜器从另一个角度诠释了这项立法。这些文物可能不是复制品、有损坏或不值得收藏，但大英博物馆一次只能展示100件藏品，这使得这些文物成为了加拿大作家马尔科姆·格拉德威尔所描述的现代博物馆“龙的心理”的主要人质：为囤积而囤积的本能。
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the National Heritage Act, which locked several other national museums into a similar bind over the disposal of their possessions. Tristram Hunt, the director of one of these, the V&A, argued last year that it was time for the act to be repealed, enabling institutions to sharpen up their act and respond to the ethical demands of a changing world. It is a conversation that is badly needed if the UK’s national museums are not to become bywords for postcolonial backwardness.
今年是《国家遗产法案》颁布40周年，该法案让其他几家国家博物馆在处置藏品方面也陷入了类似的困境。其中之一的V&A博物馆馆长特里斯特拉姆·亨特去年表示，该是废除该法案的时候了，以使博物馆能够提高自身的行动能力，并应对不断变化的世界的道德要求。如果英国的国家博物馆不想成为后殖民时代落后的代名词，这是一场迫切需要的对话。