Acknowledging Our Complicity: The Dark Side of Collecting

The artifacts that you see on display, as well as hundreds more in the Wilson College Antiquities Collection, represent the dedication of Wilson College’s faculty, students, and alumni to the ancient world. The collection is broad, including objects from a variety of mediums and demonstrating the chronological and geographic diversity of the ancient world. While we celebrate the collection, we also acknowledge that while our foremothers had the best of intentions, the acquisition of such a collection has a dark side and makes us complicit in a practice that is rooted in colonialism and white supremacy, as well as used to finance terrorism and political violence.

Many museums in America were founded as institutions of white privilege, to publicize white male conquest and to display the spoils which they had brought back home from abroad. They are inextricably linked to colonialist practices, as is the act of collecting. Museums have had a long history of acquiring stolen antiquities, and a lively black market today continues to encourage the looting, theft, and sale of ancient artifacts. The proceeds of the sale of antiquities are funneled into terrorist groups and used to finance wars and political violence, among other things.

Further, the justifications given to support continued ownership of ancient artifacts as opposed to their return to their countries of origin echo the justifications of imperialism. “We in the United States are better suited to care for these artifacts”, they say. “The artifacts couldn’t be properly protected or treated in their home countries”, they say. Race is nowhere mentioned, but the sentiment echoes the white man’s burden.

The artifacts in the Wilson College Antiquities Collection were all legally acquired, to our knowledge, although like many collections of the early twentieth century, some have shaky provenance. Despite this, by acquiring this collection, we have become complicit in the dark side of collecting. Only by acknowledging that complicity can we move beyond it to a decolonized future. If we discover that they were not legally ours, they will return to the appropriate parties.

To learn more about museums and their connections to imperialism, colonialism, and white supremacy, read:

Museums could be powerful, liberatory spaces if they let go of their colonial practices

Museum 2.0: On White Privilege and Museums

To Fight Racism Within Museums, They Need to Stop Acting Like They're Neutral

To bear witness: Real talk about white supremacy culture in art museums today