The Bangwa Queen: Artifact or Heritage?

Campfens, Evelien

doi:10.1017/s0940739119000043

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…To further guide the modelling of object provenance information, we investigate this in the form of a case study concerning six ethnographic objects that are described in two different provenance reports "Provenance #1" [26] and "Provenance #2" [27], issued by the Dutch National Museum of World Cultures (NMVW) 7 to embed provenance of artworks into its practice and policy. They describe objects with rich provenance information elicited by extensive provenance research on these objects.…”

Section: Data Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cultural heritage object provenance describes an object's history of ownership and evidence of the legal status of an object [6]. It can also be used to form an assessment of the authenticity of an artefact and identify any unlawfully appropriated works [7]. In many cases, the details of this extensive research are not available as structured data but only reported in a narrative textual document, which limits the findability, reusability and interoperability of such information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Polyvocal Knowledge Modelling for Ethnographic Heritage Object Provenance

Shoilee,

de Boer,

van Ossenbruggen

2023

Knowledge Graphs: Semantics, Machine Learning, and Languages

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Purpose: Information about biographies of museum objects (object provenance) is often unavailable in machine-readable format. This limits findability and reusability of object provenance information for domain research. We address the challenges of defining a data model to represent ethnographic cultural heritage objects’ provenance, which includes multiple interpretations (polyvocality) of, and theories for, the object biography, chains of custody and context of acquiring. Methodology: To develop a data model for representing the provenance of ethnographic objects, we conducted (semi-)structured interviews with five provenance experts to elicit a set of requirements. Based on these requirements and a careful examination of six diverse examples of ethnographic object provenance reports, we established a set of modelling choices that utilise existing ontologies such as CIDOC-CRM (a domain standard) and PROV-DM, as well as RDF-named graphs. Evaluation: Finally, we validate the model on provenance reports containing six seen and five unseen ethnographic cultural heritage object from three separate sources. The 11 reports are converted into RDF triples following the proposed data model. We also constructed SPARQL queries corresponding to nine competency questions elicited from domain experts in order to report on satisfiability. Findings: The results show that the adapted combined model allows us to express the heterogeneity and polyvocality of the object provenance information, trace data provenance and link with other data sources for further enrichment. Value: The proposed model from this paper allows publishing such knowledge in a machine-readable format, which will foster information contextualisation, findability and reusability.

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Section: Data Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polyvocal Knowledge Modelling for Ethnographic Heritage Object Provenance

Shoilee,

de Boer,

van Ossenbruggen

2023

Knowledge Graphs: Semantics, Machine Learning, and Languages

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“…The Bangwa Queen is a wooden ancestral sculptor of spiritual importance to the Bangwa indigenous people of the South West Region of Cameroon. According to Campfens (2019) this sacred statue looted along with other sacred objects during the German invasion of the Bangwa country was later found in possession of Gustav Conrau in 1899 and in 1926, it was brought to the Ethnological Museum (Für Völkerkunde) in Berlin. The artifact is currently located in a French museum in Paris.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

African Art and The Colonial Encounter: Commodification and Restitution of Sacred Objects in Linus Asong’s the Crown of Thorns

MBU

2023

IJLLS

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African art though dynamic has changed in form, function, and meaning over time. However, the concept of Indigenous African art has remained static. This paper aims at examining the complex relationship between African art and colonial encounter while interrogating the commodification and restitution of African artifacts which has become a topical issue. This is because pre-colonial sacred objects have an aura of untainted timeless past reflecting the way of life of the African people. The colonial encounter with Africa witnessed a rush for African traditional religious artifacts and antiquities which left indelible marks of hostilities and cultural clashes among the African people. Many African artifacts looted from their countries of origin during colonialism and are now housed in museums and private collections around the world. While most studies on Linus Asong’s the Crown of Thorns focus on feminist analysis, the paper is read from the perspective of New Historicists’ exegesis that interrogates the commodification and restitution of African sacred objects stolen from Africa during colonialism. The findings show that, although the issue of the commodification and restitution of African artifacts is a complex and controversial one, there is a growing recognition of the importance of acknowledging and rectifying the historical injustices associated with their commodification.

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“… 85 Council Regulation (EU) 2019/880 on the Introduction and the Import of Cultural Goods [2019], OJ L151; see also Dehouck 2019. …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Between “colonial amnesia” and “victimization biases”: Double standards in Italian cultural heritage law

Visconti

2021

Int J Cult Prop

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This article offers a critical appraisal of the evolution of Italian cultural heritage law with respect to issues of colonial and war restitution and of control over the import of potentially trafficked cultural property. As Italy is usually considered a “source country” and a victim of historical depredations, a form of “selective blindness” to its colonial past and to its role at the receiving end of both past and current misappropriations of cultural objects is discussed. Some recent restitutions of cultural property taken in times of colonial occupation are also analyzed as signs of a possible change in policy and practice, but the article also highlights the features of political expediency that have influenced them as well as the many legal and practical obstacles still to be faced by restitution and repatriation claims. Finally, the potential effects of recent (mostly international) inputs on Italy’s cultural heritage policy are presented.

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The Bangwa Queen: Artifact or Heritage?

Cited by 9 publications

References 20 publications

Polyvocal Knowledge Modelling for Ethnographic Heritage Object Provenance

Polyvocal Knowledge Modelling for Ethnographic Heritage Object Provenance

African Art and The Colonial Encounter: Commodification and Restitution of Sacred Objects in Linus Asong’s the Crown of Thorns

Between “colonial amnesia” and “victimization biases”: Double standards in Italian cultural heritage law

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