The Museum of Wonderful Arts (MFA) Boston returned two artefacts to the Oba of Benin in a ceremony at Nigeria Home in New York Metropolis. Looted in the course of the notorious “punitive expedition” assault by British forces on the Kingdom of Benin in 1897, these artworks—a bronze reduction plaque and a terracotta and iron head—can be taken into possession by Nigeria’s Nationwide Fee for Museums and Monuments and the nation’s embassy in Washington, DC. They’ll in the end be delivered to His Royal Majesty Omo N’Oba Ewuare II, the descendant of the monarchs of the Kingdom of Benin, which is situated in present-day Nigeria.
The restituted objects can each be traced to the gathering of Augustus Pitt-Rivers, founding father of the Pitt-Rivers Museum, now an archeological archive on the College of Oxford in England. The primary piece, Commemorative Head, is a Sixteenth- or Seventeenth-century sculpture of a determine’s head and neck. Its final traceable level of provenance was in 1899, when it was bought by the London-based seller William Cutter to a different seller, William Downing Webster.
Commemorative Head (Sixteenth or Seventeenth century) MFA Boston
The second piece, Reduction Plaque Exhibiting Two Officers with Raised Swords, is a hanging bronze wall hanging from the Sixteenth century that may be traced on to the Niger Coast Protectorate, the British-controlled navy power that occupied Benin, which put it up on the market in 1898, one 12 months after the Benin Bloodbath.
“I’m happy to ship these two artworks to Prince Aghatise Erediuwa on behalf of His Royal Majesty Oba Ewuare II,” Matthew Teitelbaum, the MFA’s director, stated in a press release. “As custodians of those distinctive objects for the previous 12 years, it’s deeply gratifying to see them returned to their rightful proprietor.”
After the Pitt-Rivers Museum closed within the Nineteen Sixties and its collections have been dispersed, the American funding titan Robert Owen Lehman acquired the 2 works being restituted as a part of his assortment of Benin artefacts. He in the end determined to donate them, in addition to the remainder of his trove, to the MFA Boston in 2013 and 2018. Final April, the MFA made the bizarre choice to shut its gallery devoted to things from Benin and return all however 5 artefacts to Lehman, for the reason that museum didn’t personal the items outright and didn’t have the ability to unilaterally restitute them.
As of at present, three artefacts from the Benin Kingdom stay within the MFA’s assortment, all of which sport “inconclusive” provenance. Analysis is ongoing to find the circumstances beneath which these things left the Kingdom of Benin.
The strain to return looted Benin artefacts has loomed giant in artwork historic conversations during the last decade. A rising variety of establishments in Europe and North America have made efforts to repatriate objects. In February of this 12 months, the Netherlands returned 113 stolen Benin Bronzes to Nigeria; in July 2024, the Stanley Museum of Artwork on the College of Iowa grew to become the primary American museum to return Benin artefacts to the dominion. In October of final 12 months, the US Supreme Courtroom declined to listen to a case looking for to dam the Smithsonian Establishment from returning 29 Benin Bronzes in its assortment to Nigeria.
