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Sixty museum chiefs from 38 European and African countries on Friday agreed to set up a joint network to digitalise and exchange artworks and encourage travelling exhibitions. online news
At a press conference in Dakar where the scheme was unveiled, Hamady Bocoum, head of Senegal’s Museum of Black Civilisations, said the initiative would bring African art to a broader audience.
“Uniting 60 museum directors from Africa and Europe is an historic event,” he said.
“A network was born in Dakar; a forum allowing museums and partners to forge a shared future.”
The move comes at a time when European countries are increasingly yielding to pressure to hand back African artworks looted during the colonial era.
Bocoum said it was crucial for art “not to be an area of conflict but an area of dialogue,” and to show that African art continues to flourish beyond the colonial epoch.
“We (African countries) should not be entrenched in the idea of art restitution and think that our heritage lies in European museums,” he said.
The museums will approach governments and donors for funding to give the scheme a long-term future.
Initial responses from French and German agencies who attended the Dakar meeting were encouraging.
“We do wish to support them, to provide funding, because I think this is a development issue, protecting artistic heritage, making it accessible, and using it for education,” Remy Rioux, head of the French Agency for Development (AFD), told AFP.
“Germany’s policy on culture is to promote a new partnership with African countries… in a context of truth and trust,” said Andreas Goergen, a senior official at the German ministry of culture.
“Handing back (artworks) is not and will not be the end, but instead the start of a new way of thinking.”
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