Watch the first screening of the new documentary,
Cultural Capital: African Art, Repatriation, and Restitution
Tuesday, May 19, 2026 at 3:30PM, IV Theater 2
With generous support from the Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies, Cultural Capital follows the lives of African artworks from their origins in ancestral shrines and royal courts, through looting and colonial markets, into the glass cases of major Western museums. Directed by Reilly Clark, PhD Student in the History of Art & Architecture at UCSB, the film uncovers how dealers, collectors, and institutions turned cultural wealth into commodities — and how African scholars, curators, and collectors are challenging that system today.
Filmed on-site at the Met and the Brooklyn Museum, and anchored by voices like UCSB's Professor Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, Adenrele Sonariwo, and Olusanya Ojikutu, the documentary asks: "Who gets to own culture, and who decides what counts as art?"
What begins as a story of loss and exploitation ends with possibility — the restitution movement, the building of Nigeria’s new Museum of West African Art, and the chance to imagine a different future for these objects and the people to whom they belong.
Contact Reilly Clark at reillyclark@ucsb.edu to RSVP or learn more.