Revisiting displacements—exploring the potential of the biographical approach for object data enrichment

This research offers original insights and critical reflection on the digital data enrichment of displaced museum objects, grounded in robust theoretical foundations from various interdisciplinary fields and empirical data from case studies. Using a fragment of the Kizil Grottoes mural as a case study, the research explores the potential of object biography as a method for creating a more comprehensive and culturally inclusive dataset for museums’ curatorial and documentation practices and for future reference. It proposes the concept of digital object biography as a more culturally inclusive framework to reclaim a fuller narrative of the displaced objects' life stories, thereby extending debates on repatriation and virtual restoration.