The National Museum of African Art in Washington wants to return its stolen Benin bronzes to Nigeria. That reports The Art Newspaper. The museum owns 38 objects from the former kingdom, according to its website. About half of these come from the “punitive expedition” of 1897, in which British soldiers stole around 5,000 valuable works. These were then sold to European museums. The National Museum of African Art, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution, said it had already removed the objects from the exhibition. “We cannot work on the future without doing everything we can to heal the wounds of the past,” said the museum’s director, Ngaire Blankenberg. Last week the University of Aberdeen and Jesus College in Cambridge each returned one Benin bronze to Nigeria. Germany’s museums want to return “substantial” parts of their approximately 1100 Benin works from next spring.
Washington Museum Returns Benin Bronzes – Culture
