
‘The return of the Benin Bronzes is not just about the objects themselves, but about a broader movement towards redressing colonial injustices. The Stanley Museum of Art hopes this act inspires other institutions in the United States to examine their collections and join in the critical work of restitution and reconciliation.’
Press release, Stanley Museum of Art ,Monday July 15,2024
Stanley Museum, University of Iowa, USA, has recently returned to the Oba of Benin, in Benin City, Nigeria, two Benin objects, which were among the five thousand objects the British Army looted in the notorious invasion of Benin City in 1897. (1) The British kept some of these stolen objects and sold the rest in auction in the same year to Western museums, especially German institutions.
As readers are aware, after frequent demands from African states and institutions, some Western museums have reluctantly and very slowly started to return some of the looted African artefacts. (2)
Stanley Museum, which has a qualitatively excellent African art collection, has been discussing the restitution of Benin artefacts with the Oba of Benin and the Nigerian authorities for some time. (3) In this connection, the museum secured the collaboration of the well-known professor of Art History at the University of Lagos, Peju Layiwola, who has been active for decades on the question of restitution of African and Benin artefacts. Prof. Layiwola is a special adviser to the Benin monarch, a Mellon curatorial fellow at the Stanley Museum, and a member of the Benin Royal Family who has been in contact with the museum since 2019. (4)
Stanley Museum started 2019 provenance research on its collection of Benin artefacts to see whether they might have been looted in the British invasion of 1897. According to Lauren Lessing, Director of the Stanley Museum of Art: Provenance research is slow and labor-intensive, but we have now identified two artworks in the Stanley’s collection that were likely looted during the 1897 British attack on the royal palace of Benin. (5)
The two pieces identified by research are a small brass plaque and a wood sculpture of a hen. The Director stated 2022 that the museum could not ethically display or publish the artefacts because they rightfully belonged to the Oba of Benin, whose consent would be necessary.
Cory Gundlach, Curator of African Art, Stanley Museum, accompanied by Peju Layiwola, presented the returned artefacts in Benin City on 15 July 2024 in the presence of a joyous assembly of Benin nobles and other citizens.
On presenting the treasures to Oba Ewuare II, Cory Gundlach apologized to the Oba on his behalf as well as on behalf of his other colleagues for using the looted objects as teaching materials to instruct students without the permission of the Oba:
’The violence and loss associated with the theft of these objects will never be
forgotten, and while the University of Iowa/Stanley Museum of Art has incorporated the siege of 1897 into educational narratives for decades to teach thousands of students and other museum visitors in Iowa about the history of the Benin Kingdom, it did so without consulting the Benin Royal Court. Iowa also used the objects to teach with the assumption that the open art market provides an equal opportunity for everyone to acquire anything, and with the conviction that American institutions are immune to colonial complicities specific to European nations that once occupied Africa. On behalf of the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, I apologize for using these
objects to teach in America without permission from His Majesty—the rightful owner—and for condoning related assumptions that enabled that history in Iowa for so long. I trust that the Oba receives these objects today as a gesture of respect and goodwill, as the Stanley Museum’s recognition of the right thing to do, and as an invitation embark upon a new relationship.’
Where did this curator develop empathy and respect for Africans for the loss of our cultural artefacts under brutal circumstances of the colonial era? He even apologized. We are far from the arrogant and disdainful curators who present loans of our own looted treasures to us as if they were doing us a great favour. Apologize for using the looted material for their teaching? This does not occur to many Western curators, who will not deign to apologize to Africans for colonial injustice and atrocities.
Many defenders of Western robbery and violence in stealing African artefacts regard the teaching of their people as sufficient justification for holding on to stolen treasures. It does not occur to them that teaching African peoples with the materials in question is relevant. Nor do they care that our artefacts are for the continuous practice of our culture and not for the aesthetic contemplation of others. Indeed, the teaching of their peoples has been the justification for recent loans to Western museums of previously looted artefacts. (6)
While receiving the returned artefacts, Ewuare II pointed out that a gazette issued by the previous President of the Federal Republic, Muhammadu Buhari, clarified the question of the ownership, custody, and guardianship of the Benin artefacts; the artefacts are to be returned to the place where they were removed from.
Readers will recall that the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, and the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford, used the issuance of this Presidential decree as a pretext for not proceeding to sign agreements with Nigeria. (7)
The restitution by Stanley Museum is the first time Benin artefacts have been sent directly from the United States to Benin City in recent times. Dr. Gundlach emphasized the need for other US institutions holding Benin artefacts to follow the example of the Stanley Museum and restitute the looted artefacts, highlighting the urgency and importance of this issue.
‘Today is the first time in history that an American museum has returned objects looted from the Oba’s Palace directly to His Majesty, and by setting this example, I encourage museums throughout the United States to do the same.’
As readers know, a few US institutions, such as the Smithsonian Institution, The Metropolitan Museum of Arts, and others, have returned a few Benin artefacts to Nigeria through the Nigerian Commission of Museums and Monuments. This collaborative effort is a positive step towards cultural restitution.
Major British museums, such as the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, have so far refused to restitute any looted African artefacts, alleging they are forbidden by legislation such as the British Museum Act of 1963. We have argued that these museums have substituted their restrictive policies for the interpretation of the 1963 Act. (8)
We must congratulate Stanley Museum for doing the right thing in restoring the looted Benin objects to the Oba of Benin, the rightful owner, and above all, showing respect and sympathy for the loss of the Benin artefacts. We can only agree with the statement of Peju Layiwola during the restitution ceremony that:
‘The Oba’s palace or Eguae, as we know it, is the home of these treasures. Eguae is the repository of Edo knowledge, philosophy, and identity. It is the place where tangible heritage materials, like those returning today, evoke intangible aspects of culture through dances, songs and chants in celebration of Edo culture. It is my home and the home of all Edo people.’ (9)
Certain institutions that did not really want to restitute the Benin bronzes doubted that when the artefacts were returned to Benin, the objects would be accessible to the general public. Institutions that had for hundred-years denied to the Benin people access to the artefacts kept in Western museums, started voicing fears that the restitution to the Oba from whose palace the objects were looted would imply handing over the artefacts to a private person. Scholars and leading university institutions reduced the Oba of Benin, king of the Benin people, to a private person. They appeared not to know or acknowledge the most elementary aspect of Benin or African kingship: accessibility to his people. The Director of the Stanley Museum has answered such fears:
“It is not my job to tell people what to do with their own possessions. The two works of art restituted were stolen from the oba of Benin in 1897, and they belong to him,” Stanley Museum director Lauren Lessing told the Art Newspaper. “The best way for museums to ensure that the public can see these works in the future is to approach the oba, as they would any other potential lender, and ask. The oba has said that he intends to lend these important works to museums around the world and I have no reason to doubt him. Ultimately, however, he has the right to say yes to loan requests and he also has the right to say no.” Lauren Lessing (10)
With the inspiring example of the Stanley Museum, we would hope that other Western institutions, especially museums in the UK will start restituting Benin and other African art to make up for the lost hundred years. In any case, they should not cause further delay by presenting arguments and schemes that do not spring from a desire to do reparative justice. No proposals, reflecting a desire to save the concept of ‘universal museum,’ such as turning the British Museum into a ‘universal lending museum’ can stem the tide of history. (11)
If the British and the British Museum had any doubts about the position of most African rulers and peoples about the continuing delay in the restitution of our valuable cultural artefacts looted by the colonial masters hundred years ago, they received a clear and unambiguous answer from the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, King of the Asante, Ghana, in his lecture at the British Museum on July 15, 2024, entitled: Asante Culture and Heritage: Past and Present:
“It remains our inalterable position that articles of cultural importance looted or procured in unethical circumstances through the colonial enterprise be restored to their owners. This is the position of UNESCO and the position clearly endorsed by the government of France. We are mindful of some residual resistance but in the main, we will contend that all of us in this room are victims of a system in need of updating,” he said at the British Museum, one of the UK Museums holding onto Asante artefacts.’ (12)
Westerners should finally accept that the age of colonialism and hegemonic theories are over.
References
1. Senator Monday Okpebholo Joins the Oba of Benin and Other dignities to Receive the Artifact from US - YouTube
us-museum-apologises-returns-looted-benin-artefacts (punchng.com)
US Museum Returns Two Artefacts To Benin Kingdom • Channels Television (channelstv.com)
US returns 2 looted artefacts to Oba of Benin - Daily Trust
2. K. Opoku, Cambridge Museum Loans Ugandan Artefacts To Uganda. Will Loans Be the Future Status of African Artefacts in Western Museums?
https://www.modernghana.com/news/1325310/cambridge-museum-loans-ugandan-artefacts-to-uganda.html
K. Opoku, British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum Loan Looted Asante Artefacts to Asante /ghana: Where Is the Morality? https://www.modernghana.com/news/1295729/british-museum-and-victoria-and-albert-museum-loan.html
3. Vanessa Miller, University of Iowa art museum returning artefacts pillaged from today’s Nigeria in 1897
4. Peju Layiwola, Making meaning from a fragmented past: 1897 and the creative process https://openartsjournal.org/issue-3/2014s15pl/
https://www.pejulayiwola.com/benin-1897-com/
Peju Layiwola, https://www.pejulayiwola.com/about-me/
5. University of Iowa art museum returning artefacts pillaged from today’s Nigeria in 1897 https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/university-of-iowa-art-museum-returning-artefacts-pillaged-from-todays-nigeria-in-1897/
7. K. Opoku, Does Affirmation of The Rights of The Oba in Benin Artefacts Confuse Some Western Museums?
https://www.modernghana.com/news/1227999/does-affirmation-of-the-rights-of-the-oba-in-benin.html
8. There is no evidence that the major British museums have made any efforts to persuade the British legislator to change the law to enable them to do what most people now believe is the right thing to do: return to the African peoples the thousands of treasures stolen with brutality and violence under colonial hegemony. Now that there is a change of government in the UK, we would expect requests to the Labour Party for new legislation, if necessary, to enable the restitution of African artefacts in British museums.
When Labour was in opposition, its then leader, Jeremy Corbyn, promised to return the Parthenon Marbles if elected Prime Minister. Corbyn is no longer the leader of the Labour Party, nor is he Prime Minister. Will Keir Steimmer, the New Labour Prime Minister honour this promise? The all -party parliamentary group, Afrikan Reparations APPG restitution recommended inter alia, the proposal of new legislation that applies similar provisions of the 2009 Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) to stolen African artefacts and ancestral remains in UK collections.
K. Opoku, British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum Loan Looted Asante Artefacts To Asante /Ghana: Where Is the Morality? https://www.modernghana.com/news/1295729/british-museum-and-victoria-and-albert-museum-loan.html
K. Opoku, Even The Big Elephant In Bloomsbury Must Defend Itself: British Museum Reacts to Recent Wave of Restitutions
https://www.modernghana.com/news/1199586/even-the-big-elephant-in-bloomsbury-must-defend.html
K. Opoku, Is the de-accession policy of the British Museum a farce? https://www.elginism.com/similar-cases/the-british-museums-de-acessioning-policy/20080516/1114/9.
9. Peju Layiwola, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pejulayiwola_excerpts-from-my-speech-on-the-return-of-activity-7218743106815328257-xQEB
10. Lauren Lessing, https://www.artforum.com/news/iowa-museum-first-in-us-return-benin-bronzes-556837/
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/british-museum-parthenon-marbles-lending-library-2514374
12. https://opemsuo.com/asantehene-challenges-ethics-of-uk-law-impeding-return-of-looted-artefacts/ https://opemsuo.com/
Plaque, Benin Kingdom. The brass plaque of a high-ranking officer from the Benin wearing a woven cap, holding a ceremonial sword (eben) in one hand. Image Courtesy Oba Ewuare II.
Hen, Benin Kingdom, Wood, iron. This wooden hen figure (iyeọkhọkhọ) represents a hen with a densely textured surface. Image Courtesy Oba Ewuare II
Peju Layiwola, accompanied by court officials, taking the returned objects into chambers of the palace. Photo by Omoregie Osakpolor. - Image courtesy Stanley Museum of Art.
Prince Aghatise Erediauwa, Dr. Cory Gundlach, and Dr. Peju Layiwola at the Benin Royal Palace during the restitution ceremony. Photo by Omoregie Osakpolor. Image courtesy Stanley Museum of Art.
Delighted Benin dignitaries bearing treasures returned by Stanley Museum.
Members of the notorious British Punitive Expedition of 1897 posing proudly with their looted Benin Artefacts.