Museums and Objects: ethical ownership, provenance research, institutional partnerships

The presentation considers the Museo Egizio’s museum policy in managing a collection of universal value. Provenance research and the complexity inherent in constituting the collections become part of a broader reflection on the role of the contemporary museum, its responsibilities towards society, and the need to engage with legislative, institutional and governance issues, while acknowledging the diasporic nature of the collection. Within this framework, the presentation also addresses questions of ownership and belonging in relation to the collection, as well as the responsibility towards a heritage that comes from elsewhere, questioning the categories through which museums have historically constructed their narratives and claims to legitimacy. Decolonising our gaze means recognising the complexity of the histories that accompany objects and rethinking the ways in which they are curated, studied and made accessible to the public.