United States ex rel. Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution (Smithsonian) (plaintiff) was a collection of museums created by Congress to increase and diffuse knowledge. In 1920, the Smithsonian acquired 2,241 items from the family of Herbert Ward, a British explorer. The items included nineteen of Ward’s bronze sculptures of the Congolese people, 10 of which were life-sized or larger and weighed approximately 1,000 pounds. The agreement conveying the items to the Smithsonian required that the sculptures always be displayed alongside the rest of the Ward collection and that the collection always be on display to provide educational benefit. The agreement did not specify an alternative disposition of the items if the Smithsonian became unable to comply with the agreement’s requirements. For decades, the Ward items were on permanent display at the National Museum of Natural History (museum). In the 1980s, the museum began receiving criticism that various European items in its African culture displays, including the Ward sculptures, perpetuated negative stereotypes of African culture. It began planning an updated African-culture exhibit. In 2017, the United States (plaintiff) filed a petition on the Smithsonian’s behalf seeking judicial modification of the Ward agreement to remove the continuous-display obligation for the Ward sculptures. It argued the museum’s space constraints and modern policies, as well as the sculptures’ content, made continuous display impracticable. The museum planned to instead have an online exhibit for the Ward collection, which would allow the sculptures to be viewed alongside the rest of the collection and with supplemental information providing necessary context. The district court considered the petition.