ニューヨーク・タイムズさんのインスタグラム写真 - (ニューヨーク・タイムズInstagram)「After a five-month closure, the British Museum on Thursday became the last of Europe’s major museums to welcome back visitors. As at other institutions these days, there were hand sanitizer stations and one-way routes, a limited number of visitors, and many masks. But the @britishmuseum has made some more permanent changes, too: While closed, it altered several exhibitions to clarify its links to slavery and colonialism. Hartwig Fischer, the museum’s director, said that the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests around the world, had “altered the awareness of everybody.” So the museum made two changes. The first was moving a bust of Hans Sloane — a physician and collector of curiosities whose holdings formed the basis of the museum when it was founded in 1753 — from a plinth in a prominent gallery to a display case. Now Sloane is no longer simply celebrated as a natural history collector, but labeled a “slave owner.” The second move was the creation of a guided route around the museum called “Collecting and Empire,” with plaques that explain how certain items, like a bark shield from Australia, had made their way into the museum. (The plaques stress that most of the items were bought or donated to the museum, not stolen.) The changes he announced may seem small, but they caused a stir in Britain. The decision to move the bust angered some traditionalists, and some pointed out that Sloane had not owned slaves himself, but that his wealth came from plantations owned by his wife. This week it was mostly social conservatives who criticized the museum, but in June it was rebuked by social justice advocates when it issued a statement in support of Black Lives Matter demonstrations. “Did our lives matter when your STOLE ALL OUR THINGS?” Stephanie Yeboah, an author, wrote on Twitter. “If we matter that much to you, give it back.” Tap the link in our bio to read more. Photo by @tom__jamieson」8月28日 23時52分