Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace

Re:Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without ... by adwf on Friday March 18, 2016 @09:13PM (#11316671)

Actually, not really. I was disappointed with the recent controversy over the Cecil Rhodes statue at Oxford. I thought it was incredibly narrowminded and a poor reflection of the entire purpose of academic freedom. Quite glad when they kept the statue.

History always has multiple points of view, our most recent struggles reflect only one.

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Re:Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without ... by foota on Friday March 18, 2016 @10:13PM (#11316884)

I think this is different, sounds like the Benin Bronze was basically stolen from the capital.

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Re:Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without ... by adwf on Friday March 18, 2016 @10:54PM (#11317052)

Well it was taken down because it was representative of an atrocity, not because it was stolen.

Although, arguing down that route, war spoils are a tricky thing to discuss historically. "Stolen" is very different from "appropriated after successful war". Like I've said above, history and modern morals don't always mix. For that matter, current events and modern morals don't always mix. Take the Iraq oil situation, a bit more than a statue worth there.

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