A title like this naturally invites suspicion. Is this a defence of forgery, of passing off a fake as the real thing? Not at all. A forgery depends on deception: it only works if people are led to believe they are looking at something they are not. The copies I am defending are the opposite. They are openly and honestly presented as copies, standing in for originals that are inaccessible, too fragile to travel, or have rightly been returned to the communities from which they were taken.
Nigeria’s own debate over the restitution of the Benin Bronzes has brought this question into focus. As looted objects find their way back from museums in Europe and North America, some institutions have adopted an interesting practice: before an object leaves, they produce a high-fidelity scan, or an exceptionally accurate cast, and keep it for display. The original goes home. The replica stays
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