Personal Remembrance of Ladislas Segy

This Saturday morning BBC World Service brought me a welcome escape from the stresses of the day with a delightful conversation about the management and ownership of cultural artifacts produced by indigenous people around the world, specifically those in Africa. 

The program is nearly an hour long and I will listen when I finish these notes. But the last quarter hour triggered personal memories which are the reason for this blog post.

The Real Story - The repatriation of precious artefacts

The King of Belgium this month handed back a Congolese mask, one of about 84,000 artefacts taken during the colonial-era which the country has agreed to return. In 2018 a report commissioned by the French government recommended the return of thousands of African artworks taken from the continent during colonial rule. This week the director of the V&A museum in London, Tristram Hunt, told The Real Story that he’d like to see a review of decades-old UK laws which prohibit historical pieces being returned to their countries of origin. The clamour for the return of objects which may have been taken, stolen or bought during the colonial era is growing louder. The people and communities who want them back say it's about preserving their cultural identities. So, is it time for some of the planet’s biggest and most visited museums to repatriate many more of the items they’ve acquired from around the world? And how can the educational value of so-called ‘encyclopaedic museums’ continue to educate millions if the number of artefacts they have on display is diminished?

Before being conscripted into the Army I had the good fortune to meet Ladislas Segy, a prominent African Art expert whose collection was displayed at the Columbus Museum. The event was arranged at the last minute when someone realized that no one at the museum had officially arranged to invite Mr. Segy to dinner by way of thanking him for his time and the loan of his collection. The Ansley family was among the museum benefactors and someone with little attention to protocol decided that Mr. Ansley's Country Club membership could be used for that purpose. It was my good fortune to join his two high-school age sons for that meal during which Mr. Segy, a delightful man exchanged endless little barbs with a provincial local man with cosmopolitan grace. 

Thanks to a web search I just discovered another link archived from 1944 which I will now also take time to hear.

The NYPR Archive Collections - Ladislas Segy

A talk with Ladilas Segy about his collection of African sculpture, driftwood, and his paintings.
Although a fairly recent immigrant, he feels he is an American painter because the American public is keenly interested in art and he can be part of the growing development of American art. Segy says he has been very welcome in this country. They talk about mixed drinks in America and the parallels in art.