Ethnographic Objects on The Cold War Front: The Tangled History of a London Museum Collection

This article addresses the historical context of a museum collection of Romanian artifacts in light of British–Romanian diplomacy. The museum's holdings are unpacked through a study of the events that led to their acquisition in the 1950s. It is argued that the ethnographic investigation of the historical and political landscape in which the collection emerged reveals the importance of the collection’s performance on the Cold War cultural stage, where acts of exhibiting museum artifacts across the Iron Curtain served to create certain representations of the modern state. Particular attention is paid to the often‐overlooked European folk art collections residing in European ethnographic museums. The history of the Romanian collection held by the Horniman Museum of London (UK) demonstrates that an anthropological critique of these holdings can help explore the complex histories and the political relations that underpinned the movement and display of folk artifacts across the Iron Curtain. [Cold War, museum ethnography, state, Romania, Britain]