Restitution row: how Nigeria’s new home for the Benin bronzes ended up with clay replicas

Restitution row: how Nigeria’s new home for the Benin bronzes ended up with clay replicas

Curated from World news | The Guardian — Here’s what matters right now:

The public display of artefacts looted by British colonial forces at the new Museum of West African Art was supposed to be the crowning glory of a decades-long restitution effort. What went wrong? In a corner of the new Museum of West African Art, visitors can marvel at a sample display of the cultural treasures that adorned the royal palace that once stood in its place: a proud cockerel, a plaque with three mighty warriors, a bust of a king with a glorious beaded collar. The artefacts, collectively known as the Benin bronzes, were looted by British colonial forces who went on to burn down the palace in a punitive expedition in 1897. In the decades that followed they were scattered across collections in Europe and America. Continue reading...

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Original reporting: World news | The Guardian

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