By: Claire Zhou

Last month on June 18 2024, an art student named Ilê Sartuzi “robbed” the British Museum for a school project, with the purpose of challenging the ethics of “universal exhibitions.”

Sartuzi is a 28 year old male who moved to London in 2022 to study art at Goldsmiths University. After visiting the British Museum on March 20 of last year, Sartuzi said he was surprised to see a man behind a table, showing coins to visitors and talking to the guests about the history of the coins, saying it was part of the “Hands on Desks” program.

Sartuzi was amazed by the similarity he noticed between the set up of the museum’s coin exhibition and that of street magicians. He came up with the idea to perform a “magic trick” to challenge the ethics of these kinds of “universal exhibitions.”

Another goal which was to question the provenance and rightful ownership of artifacts acquired during periods of colonialism. Soon after Sartuzi contacted an art lawyer to see what kind of stunt he could legally achieve.

Sartuzi landed on the idea of swapping a civil war-era silver coin from England with a replica made by himself and fellow art students, using sleight of hand the same way a magician would.

In preparation for his performance, Sartuzi claimed to visit the museum 20 times, each time studying the best way to pull off his stunt. However, the first time he attempted to pull it off, the person who had handed him the coin asked to see both of his hands, meaning he could not perform the switch between the real coin and its replica.

Sartuzi attempted it once again a day later, after shaving his beard to avoid recognition. He successfully switched the real coin with the fake without the volunteer at the desk noticing, then on his way out he dropped the coin in the donation box downstairs. Several weeks later the coin had been found.

Image Credit by Eric M.V (ROWDY)