For reasons best known to itself, the Royal Academy of Music has got its knickers in a twist over old musical instruments that have connections with Britain's imperial past.
As such the Academy might dispose of “problematic” musical instruments and artefacts as it seeks to “decolonise” its collection.
The institution, founded in 1822, is the UK’s oldest conservatoire, and its on-site museum in London holds a collection of 22,000 artefacts significant to the history of music.
But instruments held in the museum could be disposed of by the Academy in a planned review of its 200-year-old collection in the spirit of decolonisation.
Pianos made with colonial ivory and artefacts linked to Messiah composer George Frideric Handel, who invested in the slave trade, could potentially be problematic.
The Sunday Telegraph understands that “there will undoubtedly be some items in the collection, which has been built up over two centuries,” that the Academy “will want to look at more closely through a decolonisation lens.
Whitewashing history, and throwing away everything that offends those who wish to be offended, serves no purpose other than to destroy the future (as you cannot know where go are going if you do not know where you have been).
The Royal Academy of Music, well deserving Prats of The Week!
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