The Contested Crown: Repatriation Politics between Europe and Mexico. Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2022. 

REVIEWED BY KYLIE BARKLEY 

During the 16th century, conquistadors stole an Aztec ceremonial feather headdress, now referred to as El Penacho, and brought it back to Europe as part of an effort to colonize modern Mexico.  The feather headdress currently resides in the Weltmuseum in Austria and remains at the center of an intense debate over its repatriation to Mexico.  In The Contested Crown: Repatriation Politics between Europe and Mexico, Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll examines the debate and how colonization continues to impact the world.  The story becomes personal – and especially compelling – as she delves into her ancestors’ connections to the headdress.  The author’s arguments and decolonized writing style are important for museum professionals to incorporate into their work. 

In the Introduction and Chapter One, von Zinnenburg Carroll provides an overview of the repatriation debate surrounding El Penacho and explains her rationale for using a decolonized perspective.  The Mexican government and protesters have called for Austria to repatriate El Penacho for decades.  The Austrian government refuses to repatriate the headdress because they claim that it will be destroyed on its journey to Mexico and that it is a part of Austria’s cultural heritage.  The author’s ancestors, Prince Ferdinand II of the Habsburg family and his wife Philippine Welser Freiherrin von Zinnenburg, held El Penacho in their collection at Ambras Castle in Austria.  Due to her personal connection to El Penacho, von Zinnenburg Carroll reflects “…on the collective through the personal” while also sharing Indigenous knowledge (7).  Through this approach, the author recognizes her own privilege as a person of Austrian-Australian descent since “…it is the white person’s responsibility to decolonize themselves” (29).      

In Chapter Two, von Zinnenburg Carroll explains the history of international repatriation and the struggle to repatriate El Penacho.  The author interviews Xokonoschtletl, leader of a group of protestors, and the staff at the Weltmuseum to present both sides of the debate.  Xokonoschtletl and other protestors hope to “…regain agency in the access, definition, and representation of Aztec culture;” meanwhile, the museum staff refuse to speak with him (77).  The headdress is important to Mexico’s citizens because of what it represents: religious power, the end of the Aztec Empire, and the extinction of the quetzal bird.  It is especially important for Indigenous populations since it connects them to their ancestors.  As a result, the Museo Nacional de Antropología created a copy of the headdress in 1940, which has led to a proliferation of replicas today.          

Chapters Three and Four follow El Penacho’s movement from Mexico to Austria.  The Weltmuseum argues that the headdress cannot travel to Mexico unless museum staff transport it in a custom box that prevents movement due to the fragility of the feathers.  However, von Zinnenburg Carroll notes that the cleaning staff at the museum told her that they “…moved it all the time to clean around it…” (102).  The Weltmuseum also denied access to Mexican conservators that traveled to Vienna to work on a conservation plan.  According to von Zinnenburg Carroll, a Mexican conservator associated with the project “…found she was almost never allowed to touch El Penacho; that privilege was reserved for her Austrian counterparts, while she was assigned to registration work” (121-122).  Chapters Two through Four demonstrate how politics and racism form barriers to international repatriation.  Based on the interviews, I agree with the author that the Weltmuseum’s contradictory statements weaken their argument against repatriation.    

Chapters Five, Six, and Seven evaluate the return of belongings stolen by the Nazis during WWII as a model for the repatriation of belongings stolen due to colonization.  Von Zinnenburg Carroll asserts that an international law (e.g., the Washington Principles) in addition to recognition of colonial genocide through memorials and institutional change is needed to initiate the repatriation of “colonial material” (147).  The Washington Principles, created in 1998, established strategies for handling international repatriation requests made by Jewish communities.  The book concludes by articulating why repatriation, collaboration with Indigenous groups, and transparency are important in museum work.  The author states that “repatriations cannot be made only on the terms and within the time frames that suit European political whims…”  and “…that hiding problematic collections in the storerooms of museums is not an option” (183, 187).      

I argue that the author’s decolonized writing style and supporting evidence make her arguments extremely compelling.  Von Zinnenburg Carroll acknowledges her own privilege and how her ancestors engaged in colonization; therefore, the author seeks to not just argue for decolonization but to put it into action through her writing.  Museum professionals should implement this style of decolonized writing into their own work to confront their institutions’ historical privilege.  Interviews with key figures on both sides of the debate, primary sources, and scholarly work also strengthen the book’s main points by presenting a diverse array of supporting evidence.  The interviews are particularly powerful because they present me with perspectives from key figures so that I can form my own opinion.  However, von Zinnenburg Carroll often deviates from the main story and mentions facts about unrelated events.  Although these asides are intended to provide context for examples and models of repatriation (e.g., Nazi looting and repatriation of the Benin Bronzes), it is not always clear how this information relates to the main arguments.  Footnotes with brief explanations of these topics would have supplied enough information to understand the context; nevertheless, museum professionals will appreciate the book despite this critique.   

Emerging museum professionals will be surprised to learn about the insidious ways that Austrian museums have denied repatriation claims.  Museum Studies students who have not dealt with repatriation directly will be shocked that museums often ignore repatriation claims.  It is important for students pursuing a career in museums to understand these practices so that they can develop solutions.  This book is relevant to museum professionals since it shows that colonization continues today and they must reckon with the significant role that museums play in colonization.  Von Zinnenburg Carroll galvanizes museum professionals to right past wrongs through repatriation and collaboration with Indigenous communities.  This book has further inspired me to think critically about collections management and how decolonization should be implemented into collections stewardship.  As stated by the author, through repatriation “…grows a respect for the value of that which we cannot know, interpret, explain, and own” (192).     

Kylie Barkley is a first-year MA student in the IU Indianapolis Museum Studies Program