112. In Relooted, You Steal Back What Museums Won't Return

About this episode

This episode discusses the video game Relooted, which focuses on stealing back looted artifacts and the real-world implications of museum practices regarding repatriation.

It's 2099, and you and your heist team are about to case an unnamed high-security museum in Europe. One of the targets: the Kabwe skull, a roughly 300,000-year-old early human skull found in present-day Zambia in 1921. This is Relooted , a new video game from South African game studio Nyamakop , where your job is to steal back looted artifacts by mapping entrances and exits, positioning your crew, and making it past robot security using your parkour skills. Several things about this are unrealistic. For one, the actual Kabwe skull, currently on display in the Natural History Museum in London, might not need such an elaborate plan. But there is a damningly realistic fact at the heart of the game: every single one of the roughly 70 objects you steal was taken from the African continent and currently sits in a Western museum or private collection. And the way museums in the game wiggle out of a fictional treaty to return stolen artifacts doesn't sound fictional at all. It mirrors the real-world tactics that have kept the Kabwe skull in London for over a century, despite Zambia's repeated requests for its return. In this episode, Ben Myers, CEO and creative director at Nyamakop, and…

People in this episode

Host: Ian Elsner

Guests: Ben Myers, Mohale Mashigo

Topics covered

• repatriation
• video games
• looted artifacts
• museum ethics
• cultural heritage

Keywords

• reloot
• Kabwe skull
• Nyamakop
• video game
• museum repatriation
• heist
• cultural artifacts

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Nyamakop, Natural History Museum

Books & works: Kabwe skull

Places: Zambia, London