The Museum Studies Program presents a lecture by Bénédicte Savoy, a professor of modern art history at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, and professor for the cultural history of European art at the Collège de France in Paris, France, on Thursday, April 7, at 5:30 p.m. in the Helmut Stern Auditoriumin of the University of Michigan Museum of Art. In the wake of postcolonial African independence, African intellectuals and politicians spearheaded a movement to pursue repatriation of artworks stolen during the colonial era and placed in Western museums. In his lecture, Africa’s Struggle for its Art: History of a Postcolonial Defeat 1965-1985, art historian and curator Bénédicte Savoy brings to light this largely unknown but deeply important history. An expert on restitution and cultural heritage, Savoy reconstructs a story of missed opportunity and defeat that still resonates in today’s repatriation discourse.

This event is cosponsored by the University of Michigan’s African Studies Center, Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, and Museum of Art.

This in-person event is free and open to the public.