‘Decolonisation’ at the V&A: Site of Conscience or Repository of Knowledge?

‘Decolonisation’ at the V&A: Site of Conscience or Repository of Knowledge? by Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

With a collection born of the East India Company and material whose origins stretch across the British Empire, the ethics and practice of restitution is of growing importance to the Victoria and Albert Museum. In this lecture, historian and V&A Director Dr Tristram Hunt argues that museums should be less concerned about becoming sites of ‘transitional justice,’ adjudicating on the colonial past, and focus more on detailed, trans-national provenance research.

Through biographies of objects with so-called ‘contested heritage,’ Dr Hunt will explain the V&A strategy of Renewable Cultural Partnerships and how museums can engage with, and shape, the coming era of restitution and collections equity between the Global North and South.