What realy shocks me is how matter-of-fact they are about looting. Yes, "honest", but still...
The African exhibition has some nicer artifacts, such as the Tree of Guns and the Throne of Weapons:
The throne was made by the Mozambican artist Cristovao Canhavato (Kester) from decommissioned weapons collected since the end of the civil war in 1992. Since the overthrow of Portuguese colonial rule in 1975, Mozambique offered both inspiration and a safe haven for activists opposing apartheid in South Africa and white minority Rhodesia. The civil war in Mozambique was fuelled by those regimes in their ultimately unsuccessful efforts to destabilize the country. The throne is a product of the TAE project - Transformaçaõ de Armas em Enxadas (Transforming Arms into Tools) - whereby weapons previously used by combatants on both sides are voluntarily exchanged for agricultural, domestic and construction tools. The project was established in 1995 in Maputo by Bishop Dinis Sengulane of the Christian Council of Mozambique with the support of Christian Aid.
The throne is a product of the TAE project - Transformaçaõ de Armas em Enxadas (Transforming Arms into Tools) - whereby weapons previously used by combatants on both sides are voluntarily exchanged for agricultural, domestic and construction tools. The project was established in 1995 in Maputo by Bishop Dinis Sengulane of the Christian Council of Mozambique with the support of Christian Aid.
At any rate, that's not really an artifact, it's a commissioned work of art, and the people who made it were compensated as any artist would be. I don't have such a problem with that.
But yes, the bitter irony of a Tree of Guns, with everything it symbolizes, being displayed alongside historical artifacts obtained through centuries of looting a continent at gunpoint....
I've never seen it, but according to Adam Hoschild, the ultimate is the Congo museum in Belgium which innocently contains no mention of the unsavory aspects of King Leopold's little venture.
