LThe Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York officially returned, on Monday, November 22, to Nigeria three works of art from the XIVe and XVIe centuries looted under British colonization at the end of the 19th centurye century and signed an agreement with this West African country on art exchanges.
READ ALSORestitution of “Benin bronzes” by Germany: why this is insufficient
Works acquired in troubled circumstances
Already announced in June, the return of two plaques and a copper head was signed in New York by the director of the MET, Max Hollein, and Abba Isa Tijani, director general of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments of Nigeria. , according to a statement from the American museum. “The MET is pleased to have initiated the restitution of these works and is committed to transparency and responsible collection of cultural property,” said Mr. Hollein. Mr. Tijani, quoted in the press release, “sincerely” congratulated “the MET for the transparency it has shown”.
The American museum detailed in its press release the route of these works since the end of the 19th century.e century.
Dated XVIe century, the copper plates had been produced at the court of Benin, in the territory of present-day Nigeria. Looted from the royal palace in 1897 during the military occupation of Benin, the works can be found in the British Museum in London until 1950, before the United Kingdom returns them to the National Museum of Nigeria the following year.
In “troubled circumstances”, the works landed on the international art market, were purchased by a New York collector in 1991, who sold his collection to the MET. It will be decades before the New York MET and the British Museum manage to seal, last June, an agreement to return the works to Nigeria.
A West African art museum is under construction in Benin City, in Edo State (southern Nigeria), and is expected to house bronzes from Benin. In addition, the two American and Nigerian parties signed an agreement in principle “formalizing a common commitment for future exchanges in matters of expertise and art”, according to the press release.
Without further details, the MET is expected to “lend works from Benin” to museums in Nigeria and, in exchange, Abuja will make “loans” to the MET with a view to a new wing of the American museum in 2024.
These restitutions of works of art stolen in Africa by the armies of the European colonial empires also concern France: this month, Benin welcomed the return of 26 works from the royal treasures of Abomey, looted by French colonial troops. at the end of the XIXe century and restored by Paris.
READ ALSORestitution of works to Africa: where are we?
–
