Sarr and Savoy suggest that stolen objects might be copied using technologies like 3-D scanning so that they can be returned to their original cultures while effectively remaining in Western hands. Such loans are usually renewed every few years in perpetuity, allowing Western institutions to retain ownership of cultural artifacts while gesturing at reparation. This is becoming a common strategy for “decolonizing” museum holdings. Following French President Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 commitment to repatriate Sub-Saharan African objects housed in French museums and the subsequent, widely publicized report by Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy proposing that the restitution of cultural property should be implemented on a state level, the British Museum has announced that it will return bronze reliefs looted from the kingdom of Benin to Nigeria-but on the basis of a long-term loan. INSTITUTIONAL EFFORTS to de-imperialize museum collections over the past several years have offered technocratic solutions to an existential problem. Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism, by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay. From Ariella Aïsha Azoulay’s exhibition 'Potential History,” 2012, various locations.

Folded photograph of the expulsion of Palestinians from Ramle, 1948.

Azoulay potential history