Photo by Kristina Gadeikyte via Uplash.
When we talk about colonization, we usually focus on land, armies and political control. But Great Britain’s empire-building wasn’t limited to geography. It also involved the mass appropriation of art and cultural heritage. Much of that legacy is still sitting in British museums today, far from the communities that created it.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, as Britain expanded across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, it also collected, or more accurately, took an enormous amount of art. Religious relics, royal treasures, sculptures, and manuscripts were removed from colonized nations, often through violence, coercion or exploitation. These objects were shipped back to London and celebrated as symbols of Britain’s supposed cultural superiority.
The British Museum stands as the clearest example of this legacy. Established in 1753, it houses millions of artifacts from around the world, many of which arrived during the peak of imperial expansion. One of the most famous (and controversial) cases is the Elgin Marbles, taken from the Parthenon in Greece by Lord Elgin in the early 1800s. Despite decades of requests from Greece, the marbles remain in London. The story is similar for the Rosetta Stone, which Britain seized from Egypt after defeating Napoleon’s forces in 1799.
Britain’s colonization of art wasn’t just about taking objects. It was about reshaping narratives of culture and civilization. Non-Western art was often exhibited as anthropology rather than high art. African sculptures, Indigenous American artifacts and Asian ceramics were categorized as curiosities, reinforcing racist ideas about Western superiority and “primitive” others. This practice didn’t just misrepresent the art itself; it actively undermined the cultures that produced it.
While some institutions, like the Horniman Museum in London, have begun making small steps toward restitution, many, including the British Museum, have remained resistant, often citing legal barriers or claiming that the artifacts are part of global heritage. But critics argue that real global heritage cannot be built on theft and denial.
Art is not just decorative. It is deeply tied to history, memory, and identity. Keeping these works in British institutions without consent perpetuates the very inequalities created by the Empire. Britain’s colonization of art didn’t end when the Empire did; it is still happening in how museums display, narrate and justify possession today.