The Benin Royal Palace was looted in 1897 during a British expedition in what is now known as Nigeria. Thousands of ancient artifacts, the Benin Bronzes, were taken during the trip. The first thorough catalog of the stolen works of art from the Kingdom is now available online. This information has the potential to have a significant impact on the idea of returning such goods to international agencies.
The database, known as Digital Benin, pinpoints the whereabouts of more than 5,000 African objects that have emerged as contentious issues in discussing whether Western cultural organizations should be required to return cultural property acquired during colonial eras. According to Digital Benin, 131 institutions in 20 different countries have holdings of Benin cultural material.
The Museum am Rothenbaum Kulturen und Künste der Welt (MARKK) in Hamburg is directed by Barbara Plankensteiner. She is in charge of the project, supported by the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation in Munich. Before the initiative’s inauguration, a 14-person project team that included specialists from Nigeria, Kenya, and the United States conducted scientific outreach with museums worldwide for about two years.
The collaborating institutions are the National Gallery of Australia, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ethnological Museum of Berlin, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Cleveland Museum of Art in the United States, and the Benin City National Museum.
The entries include information from affiliated institutions, high-resolution photos, and the piece’s title in both English and Edo.
Additionally, online visitors have access to a selection of oral histories that describe the importance of the artworks to local art and culture and are related by elders and artists from the Benin nation.
A disclaimer on the website states, “It is crucial to emphasize that the quality of provenance data offered by museums differs greatly from one institution and from one object to another. Thus, the number of items linked to these names is only a reflection of what has been recorded by museums and not a representation of the actual number of items linked to or even taken by them.”
The Glasgow Museums, the Smithsonian, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art have either started the deaccessioning process for their looted bronze assets or have returned Benin artwork to their collections in the last two years.
This summer, Nigeria received ownership of more than 1,100 bronze medals when the German government inked a contract.