Paper short abstract:

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts have been caught up in a controversial story about 'White Cube' in Lusanga in the DR Congo that wanted to loan a sculptural piece of Balot who was killed in an uprising in the 1930s. The fallout from that negotiations have led to huge strained relationships.

Paper long abstract:

My attention has been drawn to a recent incident involving the Virginia museum of

Fine Arts in which the institution is caught up in a controversial story about a

museum (White Cube) in Lusanga in the DR Congo that wanted to loan a sculptural

piece that originally was carved to represent a Belgian territorial agent (Maximilien

Balot) who was instructed to go to the villages and investigate the case of civil unrest, but was killed in 1931, in what can be construed as mistaken identity...

After failed attempts by the White Cube to secure the

loan from the VMFA, they collected/downloaded images of the sculpture from the

VMFA's website and minted digital copy/copies of the sculpture without consent.

This action has prompted the VMFA close any further channel to collaborate with

this African based museum and art collective…

The fallout from the above situation presents another interesting dynamic in the

ongoing conversation about the repatriation of African art. I survey the VMFA

episode through copious online publications, as well as personal conversations with

folks at the museum and other important personality to tie that back to the renewed resolve of the recently formed Repatriation and Restitution, a Working Group of the Arts Council of the African Studies Association, to articulate the unflinching resolve at the need to forming collaborations with institutions in the continent in finding lasting solutions to the repatriation of African cultural patrimonies.