Friedrich Welwitsch's Angolan botanical collection: ownership and the law in nineteenth-century natural history

In 1872, Austrian collector Friedrich Welwitsch died in London, leaving behind a will which aimed to distribute his widely respected collection of plants. Though the will stated that the study set of his collections be left to the British Museum (Natural History), the expedition had been formally sponsored by the Portuguese government to investigate their colony of Angola. Upon realizing their scientific value, the King of Portugal brought a lawsuit against the British Museum, with Kew Gardens e