These three totems, half human, half animal, are kept in the collection at the Parisian Quai Branly Museum for non-European art. They come from the West African Kingdom of Dahomey, which is now the Republic of Benin. The former French colony has classified the objects as looted art and in 2016 demanded their return. France refused the request.

These masks of the Dogon people are also in the Quai Branly’s collection. They originate from Mali and were brought to France after an expedition in the early 1930s. Their forms have influenced the works of famous artists, including Picasso and Baselitz. Reports from expedition members indicate the ruthless methods used to remove cultural objects.

The eyes are wide open, the body full of nails. The Mangaaka, a power figure from the Congo Basin was, in 1880, supposed to protect an African village from colonial invaders. Only 17 figures exist worldwide, one of them in the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. It's estimated that some 90 percent of Africa's cultural heritage is in Europe.

The French General Alfred Amédée Dodds took a leading role in the colonization of West Africa. In 1892 his men plundered the palace of King Béhanzin, in Abomey, the capital city of the Kindom of Dahomey. This brass statue of the cult god Gu, who was supposed to have the power of life and death, is believed to have been among the objects taken in that raid.

This statue of Ghezo, a 19th century king of Dahomey, as well as thrones and doors with bas-reliefs were also among the objects which General Dodds handed over to the World Exhibition at Paris's Trocadero Palace in 1878. Since 2016, Benin has campaigned for the return of these items.

The French General Louis Archinard conquered Ségou, in what is now Mali, in 1890. The cultural objects which the French army looted included jewelry, weapons, and manuscripts. The objects are now on display in Paris and Le Havre. Since 1994, the descendants of El Hadj Umar Tall have demanded the restitution of the objects.

The acquisitive lust of European colonizers wasn’t limited to Africa. In 1880, the Ethnological Museum of Berlin commissioned Norwegian seafarer Johan Adrian Jacobsen to acquire objects from the indigenous cultures of North America. In 2018, these plundered burial objects from Alaska were returned. It was the Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage's first restitution to the original owners.

The Kunsthalle Bremen is the first museum in Germany and second in Europe after the Tate Britain, to review its collection through a postcolonial lens. Visitors can view a wide range of works in the collection on display from August 5 to November 19.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Hanseatic port city of Bremen was a global hub of commercial activity and international trade. It was also a point of departure for Germany's colonial expansion and exploitation, as well as the port from which millions of immigrants left for the New World in the 19th century.

The Kunsthalle collection includes magnificent woodcarvings from Japan, most of them from the Edo period (1603-1868). Towards the end of that era, in 1853, the US navy forced Japan to open to international trade. In 1905, Heinrich Wiegand, the director of the German shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd, financed a trip to Japan through which most of the museum's masterpieces were acquired.

The Norddeutscher Lloyd ship took German artists such as Emil Nolde and Max Pechstein to islands in the Pacific Ocean shortly before the start of World War I. In addition to artistic passengers, the ship also transported woodcarvings from Japan and art from South America, among other valuable items. Works from these countries are on display in the exhibition.

German-Danish artist Emil Nolde was one of many modernist painters inspired by sculptures from Africa and the Pacific. However, such works were often done with little understanding of the cultural context of the pieces and without crediting the original artists.

This popular painting from the early 20th century is a reminder of the 19th-century trade relations between merchants in Bremen, the Netherlands and Great Britain, which had a considerable number of colonies. The social interactions between these groups were centered around colonial goods, some of which were depicted by artists like Modersohn-Becker.

Renowned for his works depicting Tahitian women, Paul Gauguin spent many years at the end of the 19th century traveling to French colonies. The art inspired by these trips is known as primitivist. It is an ambiguous concept in postcolonial theory: Even though the art celebrated "unspoiled" humanity, it is also a denigrating label maintaining that these cultures hadn't reached Western standards.

Sculptures like this one from Nigeria show how European colonial powers were depicted by artists in the colonies. Works borrowed from the Hamburg Museum of Ethnology, like this one, are on display as part of "The Blind Spot" exhibition and provide insight into this particular time in history.

Scottish artist Hew Locke focuses on globalization and colonialism in his work. His latest, "Cui Bono," was inspired by the historic ships of Hanseatic merchants. According to Locke, "The search for wealth, violent conflict and the desire for security are factors that have affected the global movements of people for centuries."

The original cornerstone was laid in 1443, but the royal residence only began to take on its final form in 1701. Architect Andreas Schlüter designed the palace facades in the Italian style. With its 1,210 rooms, the City Palace subsequently became known as the biggest Baroque building north of the Alps.

During the Second World War the palace caught fire during an air raid. The fire destroyed virtually all of the state rooms in the north and south wing. Other parts of the building survived, including the outer walls with their sculptured decorations, the supporting walls, and the main stairwells.

Exhibitions were held in the post-war years in the surviving parts of the building. In 1950, however, the communist East German government decided it wasn't part of German cultural heritage and gave the order for it to be destroyed, despite many protests. In its place the Marx-Engels-Square was created as a location for mass rallies.

In the 1970s, East German leader Erich Honecker had the Palast der Republik built on the site. It became the seat of the East German parliament, but the building also served various cultural purposes as well as being home to numerous bars and restaurants. After the fall of the Berlin Wall the building was closed because of its asbestos content, and later torn down.

After German reunification, there was a passionate discussion about the possible reconstruction of the Berlin City Palace. In 1993, a pro-construction lobby group landed a coup by erecting a scaffold with a life-size canvas mock-up based on historical pictures of the City Palace façade. In 2002, the German parliament voted to have the palace reconstructed.

In 2008, the design by Italian Franco Stella won the architectural competition to rebuild the palace. His design combines the Baroque exterior with a more modern interior. The reconstructed Berlin City Palace is to house an international art and cultural center known as the "Humboldt Forum."

The "Humboldt Box" has become a temporary Berlin landmark - since 2011 it serves as an information center on the past and future of the City Palace. It attracted 100,000 visitors in the first 50 days alone. Visitors can also enjoy a panoramic look at how the reconstruction work is progressing from the viewing platform.

On June 12, 2013, German President Joachim Gauck laid the cornerstone, which has two numbers engraved on it: 1443 and 2013, the date when the cornerstone for the historical palace was originally laid and, of course, the date the reconstruction began.

While the walls are being constructed the Schlossbauhütte palace builders' shed, is making Baroque façade decorations. Using historic designs, sculptors are creating some 3,000 original pieces. The palace façade cost about 80 million euros ($90 million), most of which will be financed with donations. The finished palace will cost some 590 million euros, most of which will be financed by the state.

In 2016, gray concrete dominated the site - but this will change when the Humboldt Forum is opened. Then, Berlin Museums will exhibit their non-European cultural treasures here, while the Humboldt University begins holding international conferences. The Palace courtyard will serve as a backdrop for music and theater performances.