What does the author mean by saying the curators' argument 'has a colonial echo'?
Museums that hold objects taken from other countries during periods of conquest are increasingly asked to return them. Some curators respond that the objects are safer, better studied and seen by more people in a great metropolitan museum than they would be at home. The argument has a colonial echo: it assumes that the former owners cannot be trusted with their own heritage. It also proves too much, since by the same logic the richest institutions would be entitled to hold the treasures of everyone else. Yet a blanket policy of return is not the answer either. Some objects were acquired by fair purchase or gift, and a few survive only because someone took them away. Each claim should be judged on how the object was acquired, and on what the claimant wishes to do with it.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: C. It resembles the old assumption that other countries cannot look after their own heritage
- Step 1: The sentence continues: it assumes that the former owners cannot be trusted with their own heritage.
- Step 2: That attitude echoes colonial thinking.
Answer
It resembles the old assumption that other countries cannot look after their own heritage.
Why not the others: The phrase does not say who first made the argument, require return, prove theft or allege misreading.
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