The status of African objects in museums, especially within Europe, is an ongoing debate that has played out both within historical scholarship and in the public sphere. Museums are only now starting to acknowledge their legacies of violence and colonialism. These historical wrongs persist when African objects that were looted, often under violent conditions, remain in European collections. The case of African objects and museums addresses the question of whether museums are universal, neutral, or politicized. The books discussed in this review call attention to the debates surrounding the ownership of cultural heritage with a focus on the display, interpretation, restitution, and repatriation of African objects. Utilizing scholarship and debates about the Benin Bronzes, this review posits that a fundamental rethinking of the purpose of the museum is essential to any discussion of the return and display of looted objects. By considering museums as community spaces rather than monuments to universal ideas of world art, cultural institutions can be more thoughtful in the way they approach the display and interpretation of objects with violent and imperial histories.