Museums Rethink What to Do with Their African Art Collections

Recently, a discussion is happening in museums around the world over the volume of African art in their collections. Officials in Germany and the Netherlands have announced plans to return art and artifacts（文物）taken from Africa during the    1    period. And more museum staff are meeting on the topic across Europe.

According to the most commonly    2    figures from UNESCO（United Nations Educational, Scientifie and Cultural Organization）, 90% to 95%of sub-Saharan cultural artifacts are    3    outside Africa. Many were taken by force long ago and ended up in museums across Europe and North America.

At the Africa Museum in Belgium, director Guido Gryseels says 85 percent of the-museum’s collection comes from the Congo-the site of Belgium’s    4    colony in Central Africa. For decades, Congolese leaders have asked for these objects to be returned. Most of their    5    , and those by African countries to other museums, have been refused.

But recent events in Europe have    6    the possibility of returns at a much larger scale. In addition to the plans announced in Germany, last year France conducted a study of how much African art French museums are holding and made    7    about what to do with it.

The study recommended the return of a wide range of objects taken by force. The suggestion got mixed    8    in France, where there are at least 90000 African items in museums.

In France, some people have suggested returns could leave shelves    9    in French museums. Cecile Fromont, a French historian of Central African art, says that’s not going to happen. One way of thinking about it, she says, is that more African art can go on display.

However, Guido Gryseels of the Africa Museum in Belgium    10    that attitudes are changing. He says he’s in discussion with the Congo to return works.

Former World’s Fattest Man Finds Love

He was once the world’s fattest man weighing in at an incredible 980 pounds and consuming 20,000 calories (卡路里) a day. But it seems that after losing 672 pounds following a surgery, it’s not just Paul Mason’s health that has a more promising     1    —his weight loss may have also promoted his love life.

Mr. Mason has only known his new girlfriend Rebecca for a month and the pair are yet to meet, but already   the 52-year old has     2     that Rebecca is the love of his life. The pair met online last month when Rebecca saw   a television     3     about Mr. Mason’s extreme fatness—the result of overeating when a previous relationship ended. She was so touched by his situation as to get in touch, keen to help Mr. Mason get the NHS (National Health Service) to pay for a second operation to     4     him of layers of extra skin.

Mr.   Mason said: “She didn’t really think of anything     5     at the beginning. It wasn’t until the second conversation that I realised there was more there than just friends. She felt the same and brought up the idea of us being boyfriend and girlfriend.”

Mr. Mason says that he doesn’t go for looks and finds Rebecca’s     6     attitude particularly attractive. “It is   her personality,   her     7     and passion that has made me fall for her. We share the same ideas and interests and she has made me look at life in a new way. For a long time I couldn’t really see light at the end of the tunnel, but since Rebecca’s been in my life I’ve got a whole new     8     of worth and excitement.”

Mr. Mason     9     to his incredible size by eating ten times the amount needed by a normal man due to a compulsive eating disorder. As his weight rose sharply he was left unable to stand or walk before finally becoming bed-ridden and being looked after full time by carers.

Firefighters had to knock down the front wall of his     10     home so they could use a fork lift truck to lift him out and put him into an ambulance when he needed an operation in 2002.