Sherine Al Shallah and Lucas Lixinski on Cultural Objects

The Curiosity Lecture series returns to the Festival with a line-up of our most thought-provoking speakers delivering one-time talks on topics of intrigue, interest and importance.

The Parthenon Marbles. The Benin Bronzes. Grandma's jewellery that she smuggled in her clothes, never to return. What if taking an object is the best way to keep a community's culture alive?

Legal experts Sherine Al Shallah and Lucas Lixinski engage with old and new arguments about cultural objects. Bringing together perspectives from decolonisation and refugee practices, Sherine and Lucas dare us to think beyond our preconceived notions, showing that ‘whether’ to return can be an even more complicated question than we thought.

If we think about cultural objects not as objects, but as conduits for human connection and identity, they argue, then we may have a chance of solving these complex ethical problems.