ILast March, two men in tracksuits, hockey masks and matching laundry bags headed to the British Museum. Just outside, police on patrol asked two strange-looking men where they were going. “We’re going to the British Museum to loot the stolen goods,” one of them said. “See you there then!” replied the policewoman.

However, no arrests were made as nothing incriminating occurred. What actually happened was that one of the British Museum’s most famous objects, an artifact that, according to Egyptologist Monica Hanna, is a “symbol of Western cultural power” and “a symbol of British imperialism,” Rosetta’s “digital It was a robbery. stone.

The robbers, along with Hanna, who they had invited with them, went to the exhibit room where the stone monument was displayed and created a detailed 3D scan of it on an iPad. This effectively provided “looters” with a completely legal digital copy of the 196 BC artifact. But their goal is not just to digitize the Rosetta Stone, but to use location-based augmented reality technology (or geo-AR) to locate the Rosetta Stone in its place of origin, Rashid (or Rosetta) in Egypt. The idea was to return the images to local people and make them available for viewing. Send objects from your smartphone.

The two men behind the masks were Chidi Nwaubani and Ahmed Abokor, London-based product designers and creative consultants, respectively. Together they are booty, a radical “artist” collective and technology company founded in 2021, whose purpose is to “loot” cultural artifacts stolen from museums. First, we 3D scan them and then share them as enhanced digital artwork through non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Because NFTs provide public proof of ownership of digital files, Looty’s method of “stealing” and redistributing works of art is connected to the lack of transparency often associated with institutions founded in colonial times. The aim is to challenge the fading of. The British Museum was embroiled in a scandal in August last year, when it was revealed that around 2,000 artefacts were stolen due to poor record-keeping, and that around half of its collection of around 8 million items had not been fully catalogued. However, the museum, which was founded in the 18th century, is once again facing scandal. public calculation.

“They’re less interested in the artifact and more concerned with the fact that they have it,” Abokor said. “Once again, it’s all about power.”

From organizing one of the main things interactive exhibit From its exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale last year to its installation at NFT Paris this February, Looty is taking the world of art and technology by storm. In November, they special projects department 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair. Continuing his Rosetta Stone heist project, Abokor had created a replica of the Rosetta Stone wrapped in cloth and rope. Visitors can scan the stone using the QR code included in the piece’s description, which activates an animation on their mobile phone for an augmented reality (AR) experience that shows Rosetta’s Stone in its true size and glory. became.

Nwaubani and Abokor’s partnership dates back nearly 20 years, when they met at university in London and bonded over a shared creative spirit and African heritage. Nwaubani grew up mainly around Guildford and developed her interest in technology early by “coding her games on computers with floppy discs”. However, she experienced severe racism at school and her father, a university professor from Nigeria, forced her to change schools.