British Labour politician and former civil rights lawyer, Lord Paul Yaw Boateng, has called on allies and the public to pressure trustees of the British Museum to take meaningful steps toward restitution of looted artefacts.
He made the call at a Chatham House event on Thursday, October 15, 2026, held to commemorate Black History Month on the theme “Reckoning or rhetoric: Is now the time for reparative justice on the global stage?”
Lord Boateng described the British Museum as the “largest depository of stolen goods known to man” and argued that the museum has talked about reparative justice but failed to deliver on it.
He said its friends should press the trustees to do more, including the full return of the Ethiopian Tabots, Benin Bronzes and Asante gold.
Lord Boateng said the museum must move beyond rhetoric and take concrete action on returning cultural artefacts to their countries of origin.
