Berlin’s Humboldt Forum steps into restitution debate with exhibits

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is set to inaugurate two new exhibitions on Wednesday as part of Berlin’s Humboldt Forum museum complex, which was designed to house the country’s vast holdings of non-European art.

The exhibits contain about 20,000 African and Asian artefacts – some of them controversial due to a debate about whether they should be restituted to their countries of origin.

Located in the centre of Berlin, the Humboldt Forum is a state-of-the-art museum complex that cost hundreds of millions of euros to build. It has been described as an ethnographic museum for the 21st century.

Before the opening, Steinmeier met with the heads of several ethnological museums in Germany as well as experts for the countries of origin in order to discuss the role of museums in exposing colonial injustices.

Steinmeier also talked about which forms of collaborations with the countries of origin are necessary in order to provide more transparency and comprehensive information on the provenance of cultural artefacts.

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