For centuries, colonial powers stole countless pieces of art and other cultural artefacts from African countries. Trying to repatriate those treasures has proved an arduous task, though at last some museums and cities are coming to the party.
One young Nigerian man isn’t prepared to wait any longer: he’s decided to “loot” African art right back. He won’t break any laws to do so, nor stage a heist straight out of a Mission Impossible film. Instead, the art will be turned into non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
An NFT is a digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items and videos. They are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency.
Chidi (he prefers not to share his surname) and three colleagues are set to launch their website, Looty, on Friday 13 May 2022. The name is, er, stolen from a pretty eye-popping moment in colonial history: Looty was a Pekingese dog given to Queen Victoria after the British looted China’s Yuanmingyuan palace in 1860.
As part of their “digital repatriation”, the Looty team has visited museums in France and the United Kingdom to snap pictures of stolen art pieces with their smartphones; these images are turned into NFTs.
Their earnings will be used to support artists across Africa: “On purchase of any pieces of artwork on Looty, 20% of that will go to the Looty Fund. From that fund, we are going to start giving grants to artists from the continent. We will donate money and equipment for artists to use,” says Chidi.
We’re excited to see what Looty achieves in its quest to empower today’s African artists. ✊🏿
Tshego is a writer and law student from Pretoria. A keen follower of social media trends, his interests include high fantasy media, politics, science, talk radio, reading and listening to music.
He is also probably one of the only people left who still play Pokemon Go.
