Specialization:
Areas of Concentration: Repatriation, restitution, museum practice, Native American art and Indigenous cultural patrimony
Faculty Advisor: Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie
M.A. Thesis: "Identity Crisis: Jimmie Durham, Authenticity, and Sovereignty" (Art & Art History, Stanford University, completed 2019)
Bio:
Reilly Clark is an art historian studying repatriation, restitution, and museum practice. Reilly earned his B.A. and M.A. in Art History at Stanford University, where he focused on modern and contemporary Indigenous art. In addition, Reilly studied repatriation issues at the University of Oxford.
Reilly focuses on the return of stolen art and cultural heritage. He has had the privilege of returning cultural objects from private families to Indigenous communities across North America. He has had the privilege of working on many more institutional repatriation cases through the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History under the purview of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).
Reilly has received the Public Humanities Fellowship at the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, a fellowship at the Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies, and a fellowship at the Max Kade Foundation for research on the Benin bronzes. He directed the documentary, Cultural Capital: African Art, Repatriation, & Restitution, which can be seen on YouTube.
