Hi Tim
Thank you for this very rare and nice story.
The return of the stolen objects during the colonization times is really an important topic.
I was discussing it just few days ago with the curator of one of the main museum of primitive art in France that is visiting here. He agreed himself that there is no interest to keep that many objects in the western museums when, in the countries where these artifacts are coming from, the museums have often so little to show.
The return is something to think about mostly when we know that the museums in the western hemisphere show around 5% of their collections average, the rest being stored in wharehouses or underground where they are not always properly taken care of because of budget restrictions.
In the case of Taiwan, no western colonisation, but japanese one from 1895 to 1945. When they arrived in the island, they were the first to show interest in the aboriginal people. I f they sent ethnologists in the tribes, it was in order to learn about them for scientifical purpose but also in order to better colonise them. While the French were sending missionaries first before the soldiers, the Japanese were sending ethnologists.
They collected the first objects from these territories considered as terra incognita till their arrival and where nobody was daring to go as the head hunters were everywhere.
Step by step, they accumulated a lot of knowledge and objects from these tribes. At the same time, they submitted them to their laws.
Except what the Japanese had brought before the end of the 2nd world war to their country, before being expelled from Taiwan by the Americans and Chiang Kai-chek, the rest of the objects remained in the taiwanese museums. There are today around 12 000 aboriginal objects in the public museums here. But it's true also that a bigger number, with the oldest pieces, is still in Japan.
Thanks again for the article, Tim.
Best,
yuanzhumin
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