Nigerian stolen Arts, why they are still to be returned?

byNnaemeka Ali, O.M.I
-January 3, 2013

A look into the long awaited request made by the Nigerian government to those who robbed her historical and valuable objects.

Nigeria to the world: Give us our art back! by Heather Murdock

British colonials once made off with thousands of artifacts. Now Nigeria wants them all back.

BENIN CITY, Nigeria — In this city, statues adorn the streets and there’s an art museum in the town square. It is the heart of Nigeria’s art world.

But officials say millions of dollars worth of Benin art remains in Europe and the United States, stolen more than a century ago by British colonials. And the people of Benin want it back.

“If anybody can go down to the British government and tell them to
bring those artifacts [back], we still need them in Benin,” Uyi Omoruyi,
a local artist that creates bronze sculptures and woodcarvings told
GlobalPost outside his small shop. “We still need them because all of
them represent Benin culture.”

Benin City is the capital of Edo State in Nigeria — not to be confused with the Republic of Benin, a neighboring West African country. A traditional king, known as the “Oba,” still informally rules the Kingdom of Benin.

Umogbai Theophilus, the curator for Nigeria’s National Museum in
Benin City told GlobalPost that Nigerians have been petitioning for the
return of their ancient art works for decades, but most of it remains at
large.

“In the past we’ve had successes bu t they were very modest compared to what was taken away,” he said.

Foreign art collectors, however, argue that the history of Benin Kingdom is kept alive by the art, which travels the world.

Last summer, after obtaining 32 works of Benin art from Robert
Lehman, the great-grandson of the founder of the now-defunct investment
group, Lehman Brothers, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts
said it would “present a number of public programs that further the
appreciation of the Kingdom of Benin’s renowned arts, cultural heritage,
and complex history.”

Lehman’s collection includes bronze and ivory statues, plaques and
utilitarian items. The most famous bronze bust in the group is from the
late 15th or early 16th century and is called the “Commemorative Head of
a Defeated Neighboring Leader,” an homage to Benin’s victories.

Nigerian officials, however, say the Boston acquisition along with
other collections around the world are the legal property of the Benin
royal family. In response to the museum’s announcement, Yusuf Abdallah
Usman, the director-general of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums
and Monument demanded the art be returned.

“Without mincing words, these artworks are heirlooms of the great people of the Benin Kingdom and Nigeria generally,” he said. “They
form part of the history of the people. The gap created by this
senseless exploitation is causing our people untold anguish, discomfort
and disillusionment.”

Most of the Benin art traveling the globe as museum exhibits was
taken in 1897, at a time when the Kingdom of Benin had been flourishing
for hundreds of years. And while tales vary, the generally accepted
story of the stolen art goes something like this:

In the late 19th century, the Benin Oba enacted trade embargos
against the British who were growing more powerful in the region, as
European empires competed for African resources.

In response to the embargos, a party of British men traveled to the
kingdom’s capital. By most accounts, they were planning to attack the
city and depose the king. But the nature of their trip is still
disputed. Either way, the British party was attacked, and most of the
men were slaughtered.

The result is not disputed. The British launched a “punitive
expedition” and sacked the capital. They trashed the palace, overthrew
the Oba and forced him into exile. Most of the more than 4,000 pieces of
art in the palace were looted, and much of it was sold internationally
to pay for the battle.

Theophilus, the museum curator, told GlobalPost the expedition nearly destroyed the city’s cultural heritage.

“After cutting all the art work away they burnt the old palace,” he
said outside the museum, which sits on a grassy park in the city’s main
roundabout. “They burnt it down in retaliation for what they felt was
Benin aggression to the party that came earlier.”

Benin’s modern artists say for local people, the lost art represents a lost part of history.

“In the olden days any event that took place is [remembered] through
art work,” local artist Williams Edosowan told GlobalPost. “There were
no cameras to snap any events. These days now if you are doing marriages
there is a video that will cover it.”