For years, Nigeria’s artists, historians, activists and royals have been clamoring to get back the stolen Benin Bronzes — more than 3,000 works, many of them religious objects, looted by British soldiers in 1897 and now held in the collections of some of the most important museums in the U.S. and Europe.
As conversations about racism and the legacy of colonialism have proliferated globally in recent years, some institutions are beginning to respond to these calls, write our reporters Ruth Maclean and Alex Marshall.
In April, Germany said it would return a “substantial” number of Benin Bronzes next year. The National Museum of Ireland plans to return 21 objects, as well. But they are outliers. The British Museum previously floated the idea of loans, but never full restitution, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is not considering sending its treasured Queen Idia mask back, said a spokesman.
Bronze plaques made to record events at the palace in Benin, now on display at the British Museum in London.Lauren Fleishman for The New York Times
To many Nigerians, the stolen works are not just physical objects of art, but also narratives. They form part of the bedrock of the identity, culture and history of Benin — the city in Nigeria that was once part of the Kingdom of Benin, not the modern nation Benin.
“They were made to tell stories, to keep memories,” said Enotie Ogbebor, an artist from Benin City. Western institutions had turned these pieces into “objects of admiration, when these were objects holding information,” he added.
Source: nytimes
The Queen Idia ivory mask.
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