// The Dispatch

LOOTY Updates

Field notes from the front line of digital repatriation — events, writings, and press, straight from the studio.

Press

Mbari Memorial — My First Solo Show, Frieze Week

On 12 October, during Frieze week, I open my first solo show at Art Otel Shoreditch — a continuation of the award-winning Mbari Memorial, staged as a third space for art, music, workshops and culture.

Chidirim Nwaubani · 27 Jun 2026 · 2 min read

Press

The Rosetta Stone Was Taken From Egypt. This Artist Took It Back

Inside Looty’s mission to reclaim the Rosetta Stone — not in stone, but in scan and augmented reality — and return its story to Egypt.

Katherine Smyrk & Marc Fennell · ABC News · 12 May 2026 · 5 min read

The Rosetta Stone Was Taken From Egypt. This Artist Took It Back

News

Winner at the Cape Town Art Fair

Mbari Memorial won the 2026 Tomorrows/Today Prize at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair — recognition for emerging artists pushing the boundaries of contemporary practice.

Chidirim Nwaubani · 26 Feb 2026 · 2 min read

Press

LG and Chidi Nwaubani Reimagine African Heritage at Investec Cape Town Art Fair

Inside Mbari Memorial — a touch-activated installation where communal contact summons digital sculptures, and the museum’s “do not touch” rule is broken on purpose.

Lulama Klassen · Cape Town ETC · 26 Feb 2026 · 4 min read

LG and Chidi Nwaubani Reimagine African Heritage at Investec Cape Town Art Fair

Press

The Rosetta Code · Stuff the British Stole

From Egypt to France and on to Britain, Marc Fennell decodes the story of the Rosetta Stone: how it ended up in London, who really took it, where it belongs, and why it remains one of the British Museum’s most contested treasures.

Marc Fennell · ABC iview · 1 Jan 2026 · 30 min read

The Rosetta Code · Stuff the British Stole

Events

Ogene MIDI takes an Honorary Mention at the London Design Biennale 2025

Ritual as Algorithm. Our playable reimagining of the Igbo Ogene was recognised among the Biennale's standout commissions — here's what happened in the room.

LOOTY Studio · 12 Jun 2025 · 4 min read

Ogene MIDI takes an Honorary Mention at the London Design Biennale 2025

Events

Panel — Decolonising the Museum, live from Venice

Chidi Nwaubani joins curators and technologists to ask what a museum owes the communities it borrowed from. Doors open 18:00.

LOOTY Studio · 3 May 2025 · 3 min read

Panel — Decolonising the Museum, live from Venice

Writings

LOOTY NFT — Season Two mint is open

A new drop of digital twins, with proceeds funding the next round of scans. Provenance recorded on-chain, ownership returned to the diaspora.

LOOTY Studio · 18 Apr 2025 · 5 min read

Press

Featured in The Guardian: Rewriting Ownership

"A heist in reverse." The Guardian profiles LOOTY's method of scanning looted artefacts and handing the digital twins back to their communities.

Press · 22 Mar 2025 · 6 min read

Featured in The Guardian: Rewriting Ownership

Events

LOOTY × Art Dubai — Live Reconstruction

Watch a Benin Bronze rebuilt from a point cloud to a museum-grade digital object, in real time, on the fair floor.

LOOTY Studio · 9 Feb 2025 · 3 min read

News

New LiDAR scans added to the Open Archive

Fourteen new objects join the freely accessible archive this month, each with full provenance metadata.

LOOTY Studio · 30 Jan 2025 · 2 min read

New LiDAR scans added to the Open Archive

Writings

Ogene MIDI is now playable online

Can't make it to an exhibition? The browser version of Ogene MIDI lets you perform from anywhere.

LOOTY Studio · 8 Jan 2025 · 2 min read

Events

Workshop — Scan Your Heritage, London

A free hands-on session teaching consumer LiDAR capture for community archives. No experience needed.

LOOTY Studio · 14 Dec 2024 · 3 min read

Press

BBC World Service: an interview with Chidi Nwaubani

On heritage, technology, and why a digital twin is more than a consolation prize.

Press · 20 Nov 2024 · 4 min read

BBC World Service: an interview with Chidi Nwaubani