Correspondence
Unit
The Bernie Grant Archive
Date
January 10, 1997
Actors
Source actors
Spalding, Julian
Target actors
Grant, Bernie
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An archival document representing a Correspondence of 1 page(s)
Correspondence
The Bernie Grant Archive, The Bishopsgate Insititute
The Bernie Grant Archive
Date
December 6, 1996 to December 11, 1996
An archival document representing a Photographs of 1 page(s)
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Photograph
The Bernie Grant Archive, The Bishopsgate Insititute
The Bernie Grant Archive
Date
July 11, 1994

Institution data

Institution fieldValue
Document reference
BG_ARM_7_6_1 (11)
Date
10.01.1997
Description
Letter from Julian Spalding, Director of Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum, to BG rejecting the request for restitution of its Benin artefacts, claiming that the collection is ‘small and not of the finest quality’ and that restitution would, ‘limit, in our opinion, our visitors’ understanding of the world’. The letter clearly values the claim of Glasgow Museum’s visitors above that of the Oba of Benin and the Edo people.
Sensitive Content

Digital Benin collates digital material from institutions, and some of this material is inherently colonial and contains words, terms and phrases that are inaccurate, derogatory and harmful towards African and African diasporic communities. Catalogue transcriptions, book titles, exhibition titles and museum titles may contain harmful terms. We recognise the potential for the material to cause physical and mental distress as well as evoke strong emotions. Owing to the scale of the collection’s data, a process to implement sensitive-content warnings in the displayed data is still incomplete. The material within the catalogue does not represent Digital Benin’s views. Digital Benin maintains a strong anti-colonial, anti-racist position and affirms its support for centring the humanity of historically marginalised and disenfranchised communities. Read more about the background of this statement here