ABSTRACT
Art can operate as an alibi for cannibal power because of its ability to gild ugly social and historical facts with the patina of taste and beauty. The link between aesthetic appreciation and imperial expansion is mirrored in other, more explicit forms of cultural consumption in which sacred objects are seized and removed to the capitals of Europe and North America. Power dazzles and blinds, and those closest to its heart are often unable to see anything beyond its reflections. Those who affirm a more marginal relation to the dominant culture sometimes more easily see the nature of that system and notice what those closer to the center may overlook. Theophile Gautier wrote at a time when most Europeans took for granted their "right" to decide the good and to control and determine the fate of the rest of the world.
