RESTITUTION OF BENIN BRONZE FROM THE WEST
By admin
Published On April 24, 2022
From museums to art institutions, plans are being made to return the looted Benin bronze artefacts.
The British army looted thousands of cultural treasures including metal, ivory and bronze sculptures and carvings, during the devastating attack on the Benin Kingdom in present day Nigeria. These artefacts live in museums and private collections around the world today.
In 2019, Germany’s 16 states approved guidelines creating the conditions for the return of artefacts in public collections that were taken from former colonies. About 25 museums in Germany alone are in possession of looted Benin bronzes.
African activists and scholars are welcoming the German government as they are on course to be the first country to return to Nigeria, sculptures looted by British troops from the royal palace of Benin Kingdom in 1897. A German foreign ministry delegation visited Benin City sometime last month to negotiate an agreement that would involve permanent restitutions from German museums. The deal is expected to be finalised soon.
In addition, the University of Aberdeen in Scotland is set to repatriate a Benin Bronze in its museum collection to Nigeria.
The university acquired the bronze which depicts an Oba of Benin at an auction in 1957, and calls it a “superb example of Benin Late Period art.”
George Boyne, the university’s Vice Chancellor in a statement said “It would not have been right to have retained an item of such great cultural importance that was acquired in such reprehensible circumstances,” If the artefact is returned in within the next couple of weeks, it will become the first Benin Bronze to be fully restituted from the West.
Following suit, the Horniman Museum and Gardens in London is the latest in an increasing number of institutions to take action concerning repatriating the Benin Bronzes. The museum published a policy document, setting out clear procedures for communities of origin to file requests for objects, and also expressed a willingness to engage with them. The museum is home to 49 sculptures from Benin City, including 15 Benin Bronze plaques depicting Oba’s and other legendary figures, a brass bell that likely would have been worn by a warrior, and a ceremonial paddle.
In recent times, the conversation for the return of these stolen artefacts has been gaining momentum, with many museum investigating the provenance of the Benin objects in their collections.
As Western governments and institutions prepare to part with these artefacts, their African counterparts are getting ready to welcome long-lost treasures. Nigerian partners including the Oba of Benin, the Edo state government and the National Commission for Museums and Monuments have established a foundation, the Legacy Restoration Trust, to manage the restituted objects and a planned new museum for them called The Edo Museum of West African Art to be located in Benin City.
We are definitely looking forward to how these plans unfolds.
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