US Returns 19th-century Benin Bronze Stolen By British Colonial Masters
‘Head of a King’ or ‘Oba’ a bronze sculpture stolen by the British colonial forces during the invasion of the Benin Kingdom in 1897, was one of the artefacts handed over to the Nigerian government during a ceremony at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC on Tuesday, October 11, 2022.
The sculpture, which has been held in the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum for more than 70 years, is believed to be worth more than $500,000 if auctioned.
The repatriation of the artefacts to the Nigerian National Collections is part of the continued effort to return thousands of artefacts stolen from Nigeria during the colonial era in the 19th Century and scattered across museums in Europe, America and Asia.
“Today, we address a historic injustice by returning the Benin Bronzes, magnificent examples of Benin’s culture and history. Through this repatriation, we acknowledge a legacy of culture thief and do our part to return African culture to Africans,” Lonnie G Bunch III, founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African History and Culture, announced on October 11, 2022.
Carved by Benin people in Nigeria in the 1800s, the repatriated sculpture represents a king (Oba) but, like thousands of other sculptures, was looted by the British during colonial rule. These sculptures signify the culture of the Benin people. Some were sacred objects of worship.
“In 1897, the ‘Head of an Oba’ was stolen from the Royal Palace of Oba Ovonranwmen,” Rhode Island museum Interim Director Sarah Ganz Blythe said in a statement.
In 2021, the University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom, returned a Benin bronze stolen in 1897, becoming the first public institution to do so after more than a century heist of the Benin treasury. In July 2022, Germany, which is also in possession of hundreds of the looted Benin sculptures, returned two of those priceless artefacts in a move that is believed could see the return of hundreds more to their original home.
There have been calls for the repatriation of looted artefacts by many Nigerians.
Nigeria Minister of Information and Culture, Lia Mohammed, in his remarks, said that the Nigerian government is making efforts to return more of the stolen artefacts.
“It is in the light of this that we are delighted to with today’s repatriation of Benin Bronze. We have also received or are in the process of receiving repatriation artefacts from the Netherlands, the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Mexico, the University of Cambridge in the UK, and Germany, among others.”
In September 2021, during a keynote speech at Humboldt Forum, a museum of non-European art located in Berlin, Germany, Nigerian renowned author Chimamanda Nzogi Adichie said: “Obviously, I don’t think everything should be sent back to the countries from which they came. Not everything was stolen, but those things that have stains of innocent blood should be returned.”
