‘Can you steal back something that’s already stolen?’: how radical art duo Looty repatriated the Rosetta Stone

Tired of colonial artefacts being hoarded, Chidi Nwaubani and Ahmed Abokor use tech to redistribute them from museums in audacious digital heists

In March last year, two men in tracksuits, wearing hockey masks and carrying matching laundry bags, headed for the British Museum. Just outside, patrolling police asked the two strange-looking men where they were going. We're going to the British Museum to loot back stolen goods," one of them said. Well, we'll see you in there then!" the policewoman answered.

But no arrests were made, as nothing incriminating happened. What did take place was a digital heist" of one of the most famous objects in the British Museum, an artefact that is, according to Egyptologist Monica Hanna, a symbol of western cultural power" and of British imperialism": the Rosetta Stone.