On 15 November, prof. dr. Naazima Kamardeen will address current issues related to cultural property and restitution, as part of the research project Pressing Matter: Ownership, Value, and the Question of Colonial Heritage in Museums. Nazimaa Kamardeen is professor of Commercial Law at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, with a particular interest in cultural heritage, third world approaches to international law and the rights of communities within property law.
The event explores different notions of understanding cultural property. On several occasions, Prof. Kamardeen has written on the entitlements of Sri Lanka to regain cultural property lost during European colonial expansion, while also advocating for the restitution of particular objects in Dutch collections. Recently, the Dutch government announced the return of 6 Sri Lankan objects. This event is the first edition of a series of conversations titled ‘Otherwise Property.’ Within that series, different scholars will be asked to reflect on questions of ownership and legal entitlements based on their expertise and scholarship.