The Art of Status: Looted Treasures and the Global Politics of Restitution
Wednesday 10 December 4.00pm to 5.30pm
Room CBG 2.02
Join Jelena Subotić for her book launch.
Why is art restitution a matter of politics? How does the artwork displayed in national museums reflect the international status of the state that owns it? Why do some states agree to return looted art and others resist?
In The Art of Status: Looted Treasures and the Global Politics of Restitution (Oxford University Press, 2025), Jelena Subotić examines the relationship between the restitution of looted art and international status, with a focus on the Parthenon ('Elgin') Marbles, the Benin Bronzes, and a collection of paintings looted during the Holocaust that are now housed at the Serbian National Museum.
Subotić tells the story of these artworks, how they were looted, how they ended up on display in national museums, and how the art restitution disputes have unfolded. While these cases are different in terms of their historical context of looting and ownership claims, the movements for their restitution, and resistance to it, illustrate the larger questions of how national cultural heritage is internationally constructed and how it serves states' desire for international status and prestige.
Meet our speaker:
is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Political Science at Georgia State University in Atlanta, USA. Her previous book, Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance After Communism (Cornell University Press, 2019) has won multiple prizes. She is also the co-editor of Politics, Violence, Memory: The New Social Science of the Holocaust (Cornell University Press, 2023).
Chair: Martin J Bayly is an Associate Professor in International Relations Theory in the Department of International Relations at LSE, where he has taught International Relations since 2014.