The West Is Returning Priceless African Art to a Single Nigerian Citizen
Updated at 4:12 p.m. ET on July 10, 2023
In December, a German plane landed in the Nigerian capital of Abuja bearing 20 precious objects: artwork from the ancient kingdom of Benin, now incorporated into the modern republic of Nigeria.
Looted by British troops in 1897, auctioned in London soon afterward, and now dispersed worldwide, at least 3,000 pieces of art from the kingdom of Benin have long been the great prize in a fierce global debate over postcolonial restorative justice.
The name given to the works—“the Benin bronzes”—attests to their significance. Very few of the pieces are made from bronze. Some are carved from ivory; most are cast in brass. But the two artistic traditions most admired in 19th-century Europe—those of classical Greece and Renaissance Italy—both favored bronze for their statuary. The misnaming mingles respect and condescension: It salutes the pieces’ greatness by misidentifying them to fit European preconceptions.
I told some of the tangled story of the Benin treasures in The Atlantic last October. At that time, curatorial opinion had shifted strongly in favor of restitution of Benin art to Nigeria. (The modern Republic of Benin is hundreds of miles west of the ancient kingdom and has no historical connection to it.) Scotland’s University of Aberdeen had surrendered its single piece, as had Jesus College at England’s University of Cambridge. Most of the holdings in Western museums, however, then remained in place.
[From the October 2022 issue: Who benefits when Western museums return looted art?]
Less than a year later, more of the pieces have begun to travel. The Smithsonian Institution, in the United States, has transferred ownership of 29 Benin pieces to Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments. Twenty arrived in Nigeria late last year. The Horniman Museum, in London, has handed over
