ABSTRACT
In the previous chapters of the book, it has been argued that cultural appropriation is not necessarily wrong, and that when it is wrong, it can be for three distinct reasons: Because it amounts to theft, because it is disrespectful, or because it ignores appropriation-related requests. But when cultural appropriation is wrong, then what should be done about it? And more specifically, is there anything that the state itself should do about it? This chapter focuses on these questions. Although responses to cultural appropriation are usually thought of as belonging to the social sphere (for instance, through public shaming or boycotting), it is argued that the state also has an important role to play to address the wrongs of cultural appropriation. Although the state should not make use of criminal sanctions to limit wrongful cultural appropriation—except in a very small number of cases of theft—it can and should use its expressive power (as a speaker, as a spender, and as an educator) to address wrongful cultural appropriation. The state also has the duty to repatriate unjustly acquired cultural goods housed in public museums and galleries. Repatriation is a moral requirement unless: (1) the rightful present-day possessors of the object have not requested its return, and/or (2) there is a genuine serious risk that repatriation would result in an object's destruction.
