导读:大英博物馆长期饱受外界批评，其丰富文物不过是殖民时代的战利品，且拒绝归还给各个受害国。本周，大英博物馆发起讲座活动，试图为其自辩，“不是每件藏品都是抢来的”。

The British Museum is launching an initiative intended to counter the perception that its collections derive only from looted treasures.

大英博物馆发起了一项活动，试图为其自辩，“不是每件藏品都是抢来的”。

The monthly Collected Histories talks, which begin on Friday, will provide information on how certain artefacts entered the collection, with the museum saying it will offer a more nuanced take on these stories than is available elsewhere.

星期五，大英博物馆正式发起题为“收集历史”的月度讲座，讲述一些藏品流入该馆的具体历史语境。它表示将提供和其他信息有细微差别的故事。

The museum has long faced criticism for displaying – and refusing to return – looted treasures, including the Parthenon Marbles, Rosetta Stone, and the Gweagal shield.

长期以来，该博物馆一直因陈列(并拒绝归还)被掠夺的藏品而饱受外界批评，这些宝物包括帕特农神庙的大理石雕像、罗塞塔石碑和格威格尔盾牌。

Earlier this year, the art historian Alice Procter’s Uncomfortable Art Tours around London institutions, including the British Museum, made headlines for their attempts to expose the role of colonialism, with those on the tour given “Display It Like You Stole It” badges.

今年初，艺术史学者普罗克特举办的名为“令人不安的艺术”巡游登上新闻头条，力图揭露英国收藏的许多世界文化珍宝的殖民主义渊源，其中，就包括大英博物馆，那些游行中的人给它的标签是“偷来的拿来展览”。

Dr Sushma Jansari, the curator of the Asian ethnographic and South Asia collections at the British Museum, said she had devised Collected Histories in response to Procter’s tours.

大英博物馆亚洲展区负责人香萨利解释说，本周的讲座活动正是要回应普罗克特的批评。

“There are a lot of partial histories and they tend to focus on the colonial aspect of the collecting so you have a bunch of people who tend to be quite angry and upset,” she said.

她说，“有各种历史故事，而他们只强调殖民主义的一面，导致一些人颇为愤怒。”

“We’re trying to reset the balance a little bit. A lot of our collections are not from a colonial context; not everything here was acquired by Europeans by looting.”

“而我们想做些平衡。我们很多藏品不是殖民得来的；欧洲人拿回来的这些东西，不是每件都是抢来的。”

The free, curator-led talks will include addresses on objects from colonised places, with the first two on the Solomon Islands and south-east Asia respectively.

这次由策展人领导的自由会谈将涉及殖民地区的文物，前两次分别在所罗门群岛和东南亚。

Jansari said there was a misguided impression that the British Museum did not know – or care – about how artefacts entered its collections, whereas a lot of people were actually researching the provenance of items.

香萨利说，很多人以为大英博物馆不关心藏品的来源，但其实是误解，有很多人在从事研究。

She said the talks were an attempt to make that research public and demonstrate “there is a range of contexts in which this material is collected”.

她说，本次会谈是为了公开这些研究，并表明“收藏过程有一系列的背景”。

（来源：爱语吧）