Immediately after the opening of the Museum of primitive art Quai Branly five people tried to learn from the Museum’s African sculpture, loudly accusing France of colonial plunder. Says the correspondent of “Kommersant” in France Alexey Tarhanov.Five men, entering the Museum of primitive art, ripped from the pedestal the sculpture and carried her to the exit. Clutching the tombstone post of the people of Bari, the head of the attackers shouted along the way: “This is our heritage! I’ll take him home! You thieves!”, and behind him, fled in utter confusion, the servants and the guards. It was just before the mass demonstrations against racism and police violence, and the Museum staff clearly did not understand, do not will show whether they are racism and violence, depriving the subject of a Museum thing, which he shook.The support group was shooting everything to immediately upload to YouTube. The movie begins with the fact that a tall black with a beard dressed like a fashion show in a black beret and a long black robe, tells the camera: “All this belongs to us, all 90 thousand works. Nine thousand of Chad, with an extra nine from Nigeria and Cameroon, 1428 of the Congo from Benin… at the entrance to the Museum have names, the names of the colonialists who robbed… to get here we had to pay €8! It used to cost €12! See how many millions and billions we are brought to the museums of France, Belgium, England, the United States.”Followed by a triumphant passage to the statue in the arms of the Museum and the constant repetition of accusations against the European governments and the French presidents. When a Minister (by the way, black) tried to block the improvised demonstration of the road, a man in a beret pounced on him: “You are an accomplice of robbery! You partner is of Macron! Partner Of The United States! Don’t touch me!” The camera recorded him shouting: “All Africans have a right to come to the museums of Europe and take back everything that belongs to them. Belgium, wait for me! America, wait for me! London, Germany, wait for me!”Because nobody was going to put him on the street with the item in hand, the five began to wander through the Museum: “De Gaulle, come out of the grave! Napoleon, come out of the grave! Wake Up, Lumumba! €12 per person!” Instead de Gaulle with Lumumba was the police. The man holding the statue, told the police that as indigenous Africans, he has a much greater right to the Museum collection than the French government, and their duty is to punish these thieves and to return the exhibits to him. According to him (it was not), he was born in Kinshasa in 1979, and lives in the Eastern suburbs of Paris.All the attackers were arrested, then released on police surveillance in September must stand trial on charges of “attempted theft of movable objectsthe heritage in an organized group”. The sculpture of the people of Bari, is slightly injured when activists broke off from her pedestal, but the Museum staff believe that it will do a minimal restoration.”Although the debate on the restitution of works from the African continent completely legitimate, it in no way can justify such actions”,— commented the Minister of culture Frank Riester. Speaking about the debate he was referring to the special order of the President of France Emmanuel Makron to return home, many items that belonged to the African people. In 2018, experts on his behalf presented a “Report on restitution of African heritage”, offering to return all works of art imported into France in the period before the attainment of African independence, as captured by force, or purchased from local residents in order obviously unequal exchange (see “Kommersant” on 5 December 2018).In any case, it was not carried out on the total return of all of the works stored in the Museum Branly: imported by the French military from colonial campaigns purchased on the legal market or even donated by collectors of primitive art and their heirs. It was assumed that this will be done in bilateral negotiations with those or other countries.Demonstrative robbers of the Museum is clearly aware of these plans and took advantage of the political situation to carry out their operation recuperation (the”operation return”). Government, for its part, not wanting to stir up passions, have caused that the news had not been discussed widely in the national media.Wild thing activists can not be called out of the ordinary. Without a doubt, the court will emerge such examples from the history of art. Alexander Brener, painted in 1997, the dollar sign on the Malevich painting in Amsterdam Stedeleyk Museum, too, in a sense appropriated image exhibit from Russia. In 1911, the Italian took from the Louvre “Mona Lisa” to return to her home. Unpleasant incident in the hotel, however, not so much looks artistic gesture, how it fits into the logic of violent “anti-racism”: in the network under a roller for multiply calls of Africans to come to the Branly Museum for his share.
