Even before opening, Berlin’s Humboldt Forum was embroiled in controversy for years. Beyond the public backlash related to its building costs of €680 million ($800 million), the state-of-the-art museum has been at the center of a debate surrounding the colonial-era items filling its exhibition halls. The curatorial team’s efforts to tackle the thorny issue are manifest as the Humboldt Forum now inaugurates two new sections. The museum halls feature some 20,000 African and Asian artifacts, which used to be housed in the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art in Berlin’s district of Dahlem. Wednesday’s inauguration ceremony featured addresses by Federal President …
