Museums and the material assets of dignity and memory: Confronting loss without compensation in Expolio and Francofonia

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the connections between memory and human dignity as it intersects with art and art museums. Two recent examples—the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos 2016 exhibit Expolio, and Alexander Sokurov’s 2015 film-essay, Francofonia—highlight the need for a larger conversation regarding the way accumulation and loss of cultural products uphold or denigrate human dignity, a concept that is not often thought of in relation to the assets of art museums. Using the historical frames set out by these examples, which span from the opening of the Louvre to the plundering of cultural artifacts in Syria, I argue that dignity has always been an asset of museums. It is through the merging of dignity and memory, in the context of art and culture, that the emerging field of human rights museology can begin to speak more broadly to art history and memory studies alike.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Notes

¹ Claiming that the French Revolution is an important moment in the narrative of human rights positions this article within a broader argument as to the temporal origins of our current relationship with human rights. Although Lynn Hunt (2007) has argued for a longer view of human rights history, Samuel Moyn (2014) has argued for a much shorter history of human rights that is more in line with the global, rather than national, concerns of human rights today. For a good overview of this argument see Hoffmann (2016), Moyn (2016), and Hunt (2016).