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“The restitution of those cultural objects which our museums and collections, directly or indirectly, possess thanks to the colonial system and are now being demanded, must also not be postponed with cheap arguments and tricks.”

Gert v. Paczensky and Herbert Ganslmayr, Nofretete will nach Hause (1)

We have often heard from those holding on to the looted/stolen Benin artefacts that there has not been any demand for their return by the owners. This is, of course, a blatant lie which often reminds one of an absurd theatre piece. A performer states clearly a view point and immediately thereafter, another character tells the audience that so far no such statement has been made. We have the remarkable situation in which the King of Benin, the Oba, writes in an introductory note in the catalogue of the exhibition Benin: Kings and Rituals -Court Arts from Nigeria requesting the return of some of the Benin cultural artefacts. Almost immediately thereafter, we have directors of four museums organizing the exhibition with the co-operation of Nigeria declaring in a preface that they have no intention of returning these objects and advising the Nigerians to forget the past and look to the future. (2) The Benin demand was also stated by the Enogie of Obazuwa, brother of the Oba, at the opening of the exhibition on 9 May 2008. Some months after the exhibition in Vienna, the show which went to Paris (October 2, 2007-January 6, 2008) moved to Berlin (February 7-May 25, 2008) and we had people from the Berlin Ethnology Museum creating the impression that there had been no request for the return of the Benin bronzes even though at the opening of the exhibition, the Nigerian Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Prince Adetokumbo Kayode, had clearly stated the wish of the Nigerians to have back their cultural objects. (3) What kind of game is this?

In response to the declaration by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum of their willingness to consider demands for the return of the Benin objects, (4) the Benin Royal Family has once again sent out a formal request for the return of cultural artefacts. In the letter published below, Edun Agharese Akenzua, brother of the present Oba, Erediauwa, both great-grandsons of the famous king, Oba Ovonramwen, whose resistance to imperialist domination led to conflict and eventual invasion, looting and burning of Benin City by the British, recounts the history of the invasion of 1897 (5) and explains the significance and functions of the Benin Bronzes, especially, their use as records of the history of Benin:

Will he blow his horn to accompany the return home of the Queen-mother and the others from across the Atlantic? Does he still remember the appropriate tunes after so many years involuntary sojourn abroad?“At the time Europeans were keeping their records in longhand and in hieroglyphics, the people of Benin cast theirs in bronze, carved on ivory or wood. The Obas commissioned them when an important event took place which they wished to record.”

The letter refers to the Benin exhibition in Vienna to which the Oba made contributions and also sent a powerful delegation. (6) It is also recalls that the king made an appeal regarding the return of the Benin Bronzes:

“The King appealed to the Austrian authorities to show humaneness and magnanimity and return to us (Benin) some of these objects which found their way to your country. They are cultural property and heritage of Benin in the same way as the Stone of Scone is to Scotland and other properties are to other countries of the world where cultural properties have been forcefully taken.”

The letter furthermore addresses the same appeal to the organizers of the Benin exhibition in Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Field Museum as well as the authorities there i.e. to return some of the Benin artefacts just as some other countries, Italy, Ethiopia, Greece and Egypt have in recent times recovered their looted cultural objects. We should note also that the demand is for “some of these objects”. We have often been obliged to point out that in the English language “some” does not mean “all”. Certain opponents of restitution, including a mischievous director of a famous museum in New York, manage to interpret “some” as “all” in order to make the modest demand appear as extreme and to avoid the consideration of the request. Above all, they seek to hide the greed and insensitivity of the museum directors of Western Europe and America. How many objects will be transferred eventually will depend on negotiations between the parties. One would expect a museum, such as the Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin which has 580 of the Benin Bronzes to return at least 380 pieces to the legal owners.

It should be noted that although the letter is addressed to the Board of Trustees, Art Institute of Chicago, its intent and purpose is to appeal once again to all those institutions in Europe and America (Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne, Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, Dresden, Museum für Völkerkunde, Leipzig, Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden, British Museum, London, Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art, New York, Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and

Anthropology, Philadelphia, Linden Museum-Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, Stuttgart, Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna and others) that hold Benin Bronzes to return some of these objects to the people of Benin so that they may have back their records and continue their history and development in the way they choose.

The British Museum and the British Government bear a great historical responsibility in the question of restitution. The British Government was responsible for sending its army in 1897 to attack, loot and destroy Benin City.

The sale of the loot was the decision of the British Government and the British Museum has acquired a considerable amount of the looted objects under circumstances which have not been clearly explained. Moreover, connivance between the British Government and the British Museum make it appear as if the stolen/looted objects could never leave the museum because of the de-accession policy of the museum based on an act of Parliament. The British Museum has managed to create the impression that no one has asked for the restitution of the Benin objects. In the meanwhile, the venerable museum has been selling the Benin Bronzes and even sold some to the Government of Nigeria, the country from which the British looted the objects in 1897. The legality and the morality of such a transaction have not been clearly established. (7)

The letter is dated 9 September 2008 and as far as I know there has been no reaction from any of the concerned museums and institutions. Surely, four months should be enough for issuing a preliminary response or

acknowledgement on a matter about which all these institutions had been informed long ago. Moreover, the institutions should on their own have acted long ago since the facts of the case have been known to all and did not happen over-night. (8)

An essential step in this process of restitution would be a complete disclosure by the museums of the number and type of Benin artefacts they hold at the moment or have held in the past and their present whereabouts. (9) A simple catalogue, with images of these artefacts would surely not be beyond the means of even the poorest museum in the Western world. The surprise is that many museums have not produced complete records of their Benin objects even though one reason advanced for keeping the objects is the education and enlightenment of the general public. How can this objective be fulfilled when the objects are mostly kept in depots and only occasionally revealed to the general public? Sometimes those seeking information on such objects are told they must see the curator or the director for access to the particular objects. I have made similar experience in trying to see looted Asante gold and royal regalia.

The Art Institute of Chicago managed to hold an exhibition on Benin bronzes without including even a single one of the 20 Benin objects it possesses. The tremendous developments in the electronic media have not greatly modified the attitude of the museums in this respect. Some show digital images of a few Benin objects.

The Field Museum, Chicago states clearly on its home page that it holds 400 Benin Bronzes and that almost all of them come from the 1897 loot, by way of gift from the collection of A. W. F. Fuller.

“Benin Ethnographic Collection-The Benin collection of 400 objects includes wood sculptures, hide fans, and cast brass, ivory, and beaten brass objects. It is one of the Museum's most significant African collections both in terms of artistic worth and monetary value. Half of the collection was donated to the Museum by Captain and Mrs. A.W.F. Fuller, and the remainder was purchased earlier this century by the Museum. Except for a few recent ethnographic objects, the entire collection dates to the Benin Punitive Expedition of 1897. While some of the objects may be dated stylistically to the 17th century, no definitive assessment has been conducted.” http://www.fieldmuseum.org/research

The museum also produced an extensive catalogue of an exhibition in 1962, entitled the Art of Benin, edited by Philip J.C. Dark. The catalogue gives a list of short descriptions on 391 object and photos of some 48 objects. The Museum for Ethnology, Leipzig, published a book, Kunst aus Benin, (1994) with photos of some 68 Benin bronzes out of its collection.

Armand Duchâteau's book, Benin - Kunst einer Königskultur (1989) contains some 90 photos of Benin objects in the Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna and provides information on some other 46 objects. There is an English version of this book by Duchâteau, Benin Royal Art of Africa, Prestel Verlag (1995). Continued    Source: Kwame Opoku, Dr.

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