Spectres in storage: The colonial legacy of art museums

Donald Preziosi’s investigations of art history and museology work toward unmasking the ideological apparatus of the museum institution. With the current proliferation of museum studies programs in academia, Preziosi’s disciplinary critique becomes a key pedagogical device to illuminate the subject of museum ethics. In classroom discussions on museological practices of collection, repatriation and exhibition, complex subjects that are further complicated by the politics of imperialism and globalization, I propose organizing students to stage mock trials of specific controversies in which the colonial legacy of the museum resurfaces in the accusations leveled at one another by the contending parties. This strategy helps tackle the problematic ethics of museums and their colonial legacies without compromising the nuanced complexity of the subject