The London museum has nearly 1,000 Benin Bronzes in its collection, and has long-stalled making any concrete plans to repatriate them
In October 2020, following an extensive report commissioned by the French government and conducted by academics Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy (included in ArtReview’s 2020 Power 100: at number 3), which argued the case for decolonising Western museum collections, the repatriation of 26 Benin Bronzes was agreed. Then in April 2021, Germany committed to sending back their collection of these priceless objects. But hundreds of Benin Bronzes (which include bronze, brass, glass and ivory carvings and castings) remain in the collection of the British Museum in London (originally from the looting of the Benin royal court in 1897).
Although the museum has been working in partnership with Nigeria-based Legacy Restoration Trust to rehouse the Benin objects in the forthcoming Adjaye Associates-designed Edo Museum of West African Art in Benin, that project is only in the concept design stage and will only begin construction after a five-year archaeology research project on the site is completed. It is also unclear how many objects will be repatriated to the Edo Museum.
Now, the newly established Ahiamwen Guild of artists based in Nigeria’s Benin City is offering the British Museum a donation of artworks in return for the Benin Bronzes, Reuters reports. The contemporary artworks, the Ahiamwen Guild says, are ‘untainted by any history of looting’ and ‘showcase Benin City’s modern-day culture.’ European and American museums that retain Benin Bronzes in their collections have come under fire for the refusal to return the artefacts, with critics describing the collections as longstanding symbols of colonial greed.
‘We never stopped making the bronzes even after those ones were stolen,’ founding member of the new guild Osarobo Zeickner-Okoro told Reuters. ‘I think we make them even better now… Part of the crime that’s been committed, it’s not just ok, these were looted, it’s the fact that you’ve portrayed our civilisation as a dead civilisation, you’ve put us among ancient Egypt or something.’
Zeickner-Okoro has confirmed that the curators of the British Museum’s Africa department will meet with him to discuss his proposal, though the British Museum also declined to comment on the offer of contemporary artworks, saying ‘that it was a matter for discussion between itself and the parties offering the objects.’ Included in the artworks on offer are a 2-metre bronze plaque with carvings of historical events in Benin and a life-size ram made from spark plugs.
