After Repatriation Has Begun - Nigeria Defers to the Oba - Fall 2023

Nigeria Gives Benin Ruler Exclusive Ownership of Bronzes

Nigerian government Order dramatically changes stakes in restitutions.

Cast brass plaque, Benin City, Nigeria. 16-17th C. Man seated cross-legged and playing on two slit gongs. At top left are three slacked miniature cannon. Purchased 1961 from heir to John Patrick Howe, who served as District Medical Officer in Benin City 1897-1898. Af1961,18.1 © The Trustees of the British Museum.

Kate Fitz Gibbon - April 26, 2023

PRECIS

An Oba of Benin, between 1815 and 1827, Author Giulio Ferrario, Il Costume Antico & Moderno, Milano, 1815-1827, vol. 2, pt. 1, plate 38, public domain.

A Nigerian federal government Order issued on March 23, 2023 may significantly impact global discussions on repatriation. In one of his last acts before leaving office, Nigeria’s outgoing President Muhammad Buhari issued a Notice of Presidential Declaration on the Recognition of Ownership and Order Vesting Custody and Management of Repatriated Looted Benin Artefacts in the Oba of Benin Kingdom .[1]

The Notice and Order are comprehensive. Instead of holding repatriated objects for the Nigerian people, the government has transferred returned artworks valued at hundreds of millions of dollars to Ewuare II, the 40th Oba of the kingdom of Benin. Nigerian media reported that the government had recognized ownership, custody and management of looted Benin artifacts in the Oba “to the exclusion of any other person or persons and or institutions.”[2]

In the past, Oba Euware II has stated unequivocally that no state government, entity or individual but the “Benin kingdom” could represent itself as a destination for repatriated objects. He now says that a Royal Museum to hold repatriated objects has been designed and will be located near to or within the precincts of his Palace.[3] The heralded Edo Museum of West African Art to be designed by African architect David Adjaye appears to be out of the running as custodian of returned artifacts. Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), which has received the majority of objects through repatriations, will partner with the Oba on aspects of conservation and security, but the Oba will be in charge.

Contents of the Notice and Order.

In its opening words, the Notice recognizes that the Oba is, and presumably always has been, “custodian of the culture, tradition and heritage of the Benin kingdom and people.” Artifacts are “ascribed and known to symbolically belong to the Oba.” It gives the Oba ultimate control over where and how the Benin artifacts will be displayed, and how their story will be told.

The Notice states,

“(a) ownership of the artefacts looted from the ancient Palace of the Oba and other parts of Benin kingdom be and is vested in the Oba,” and

“(b) custody of the repatriated artefacts, shall, from wherever and whenever they are brought into Nigeria, be handed over to the Oba as the original owner and custodian…”

“(c) repatriated artefacts may be kept within the Palace of the Oba or such other locations within Benin City, or any other place that the Oba and the Federal Government of Nigeria may consider secure and safe,”

“(d) Oba shall be responsible for the management of all places where the repatriated artefacts are domiciled or located,”

“(e) Oba shall work jointly with any recognized national or international institution to ensure the preservation and security of the repatriated artefacts for the benefit of humanity,” and

“(f) repatriated artefacts shall not be taken out of the designated custody without the written consent and authorization of the Oba…”

In the Notice, ““artefacts” mean any work of art of the Benin kingdom and people, which were looted and carted away, following the invasion of the ancient Palace of the Oba by the British Royal Marines in 1897, or immediately thereafter, some of which have been registered and include crafts, creative works, and other cultural endowments made of bronze, clay, charcoal, iron, ivory, raffia, silver, wood, and of whatever materials…”

Will Order disrupt plans for repatriation to Nigerian State?

Bust of Queen-Mother Idia, Benin, Nigeria, photo Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin, Germany.

While a few foreign museum and university donors of Benin objects have purposefully delivered them directly to Oba Ewuare II, most donor agreements have been with the Nigerian government and Nigeria’s government-run museum system, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM). By granting full ownership and control to the Oba, the decree eliminates some of the most basic expectations of national ownership – that objects will be publicly displayed and accessible for academic research and study, safely stored and conserved. Regulations governing public collections generally provide that collections management should be accountable and make provision for loans and traveling exhibitions. The Oba is not bound by any written regulations.

The NCMM has often included the Oba in negotiations with foreign museums in what was generally regarded as deference to Nigerian tradition and the desire to seek their knowledge and understanding of the material. The Oba’s family has been an active member of the Benin Dialog Group, although it has also publicly criticized it. The Oba, although he has no legal standing in the government, wields enormous authority as the traditional ruler of Benin City, capital of the Edo State. Abba Isa Tijani, MCMM’s director, has said multiple times that, “We see the traditional leaders as custodians of our heritage,” a statement echoed in the President’s Notice.

Donor museums may not have understood that in this case, “custodian” also meant “owner.” The Notice will undoubtedly add significantly to the concerns of international museums about what will happen to objects returned to Nigeria. It creates huge uncertainties regarding the eventual fate of objects already sent to Nigeria and objects that may be returned to it in the future.

While the legal impact of the Notice is to make only the returned Benin objects taken in the 1897 raid the private property of Oba Ewuare II, the Notice does not eliminate the possibility that Nigerian government could claim objects from Benin that were not taken in the 1897 raid.

The Order and Nigerian cultural property law.

Screenshot of the Coronation of Oba Euware II of Benin in 2016. Prior to becoming Oba, he served as Nigeria’s Ambassador to Angola and Sweden, with accreditation to Norway, Denmark and the Republic of Finland, and as Ambassador to Italy.

The transfer to the Oba gives the government of Nigeria a way out of an extremely delicate and politically fraught domestic situation. While not an elected official, the Oba has great political, moral and social influence in Nigeria and is not someone to be crossed or challenged with impunity. His person and his role in Nigerian society appear to effectively transcend the strictures of mere law. For years, he has insisted that he is the owner of all Benin artifacts, wherever they are. Although he and his family have participated in repatriations and negotiations together with Nigerian government representatives, foreign museums, and the Benin Dialog Group, he has openly expressed resentment and anger that anyone else lays claim to the Benin bronzes.

Nigeria does have domestic laws on cultural property, its ownership and transfer. The primary cultural legislation is the 1979 National Commission of Museums and Monuments Act (NCMM Act) establishing the NCMM,[4] and replacing Nigeria’s earlier (largely unenforced) Antiquities (Prohibited Transfers) Act and Antiquities Act – under which Nigeria’s Antiquities Commission and Federal Department of Antiquities were created.[5] The NCMM conducts research, administers museums across the country, antiquities and monuments, maintains the National Museum, makes policy recommendations to authorities on monuments and antiquities, approves private museums, and manages the presentation of heritage to the public. It has 44 stations or branches across the country, of which 36 have local museums/galleries.[6]

It is lawful for a private person in Nigeria to own a major art collection, including antiquities,[7] but granting ownership to the Oba of works delivered to the Nigerian State is very different from the ordinary purchase of art by Nigerian collectors. The NCMM Act does not mention deaccessioning State-owned objects. Restrictions on private transfers are focused on things like requiring antiquities dealers to register and not allowing cultural property to be exported without a permit or sold to anyone but an agent accredited by the NCMM.[8] However, other Nigerian laws not specific to cultural property may set rules for transfers of government-owned property to private ownership. No such policies have been articulated in the transfer to the Oba.

Nigeria has ratified international conventions on cultural property, but it has not enacted their provisions into its domestic legislation.[9] According to research performed by a team of Nigerian lawyers in 2019, actual enactment into law by the Nigerian legislative arm of government is necessary for any international convention to become enforceable in Nigeria.[10] There still is a system for licensed accredited agents to trade in antiquities in Nigeria under Section 23 of the NCMM Act. There is also supposed to be a registry of traded objects, but there is no evidence that such a registry exists.[11]

How will the Order affect understandings with international museums?

David Adjaye, Design for Edo Museum of West African Art, Courtesy Adjaye Associates.

When the call to return objects taken in the British raid on Benin City 1897 first resonated through the museum world, the institutional candidates expected to hold returned objects (or play a part in sharing and exhibiting them) were:

Nigeria’s government and its NCMM system of National Museums,

the household of Oba Ewuare II of Benin, who has long urged the building of a museum in his palace grounds, and

the Legacy Restoration Trust, later renamed the Edo Museum of West African Art Trust, established by Nigerian businessman Phillip Ihenacho and supported by Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki, the current governor of Edo Province. The Trust has drawn significant international museum support for the building of a new EMOWAA museum and cultural district in Benin City designed by David Adjaye that would meet modern museology standards for public access, preservation and curation.

Despite the March 23 announcement vesting ownership and control in the Oba, on April 5, Abba Tijani, the director general of the NCMM confirmed to the Art Newspaper that the government has approved funding for a storage facility in Benin City which will be equipped with state-of-the-art security and can hold 3,000 objects, the estimated number of Benin bronzes extant in global collections.

EMOWAA’s Phillip Ihenacho told the Art Newspaper that the EMOWAA Trust is also building a storage facility, this one sponsored in part by the Edo provincial government and in part by Germany, but that it is not necessarily for Benin bronzes. Most recently, however, Ihenacho stressed that EMOWAA is “not merely a receptacle for Benin bronzes.”[12] Changes made to the EMOWAA website since December 2022 have eliminated specific references to the Benin bronzes and given greater emphasis to contemporary art and community activities.[13]

Will the Order change plans for repatriation and long-term loan agreements?

Palace of Benin, destroyed by fire. Photo 1897. Public domain.

International museums and donors seem to have been blindsided by the Notice vesting ownership of all repatriated Benin bronzes in the Oba.[14] What will happen to agreements already transferring legal ownership to the Nigerian government but which contain agreements to retain objects on both long term and permanent loan for display in world museums?

The consequences are unclear for the German government, which transferred ownership of 1,117 objects to the Nigerian government in 2022, at the same time executing an agreement to borrow back the majority for display in German museums. The conflicting announcements also raise questions for the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of African Art in Washington, DC, which transferred 29 Benin bronzes to the NCMM in October 2022, delivering eight to Nigeria and retaining the others on loan. What happens to agreements for long term loans if control of objects given to Nigeria’s government has now been turned over to the Oba?

In fall of 2022, Lai Muhammed had told the writer David Frum that the federal government of Nigeria held absolute authority in all matters to do with museums:

“There is no doubt, no contest, about the exclusive authority of the federal government to the exclusion of either state or traditional authorities in matters relating to monuments, museums, and artifacts.”[15]

Statements like these were accepted at face value by international museums, which, while they welcomed working with the Oba and his family, also repeatedly expressed high expectations for the forward thinking, internationalist EMOWAA project as the apparent “best” partner to the NCMM.

What does the Oba want to do with the Benin Bronzes?

Royal Palace of the Oba of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. The palace, built by Oba Ewedo (1255AD – 1280AD), is located at the heart of ancient City of Benin. It was rebuilt by Oba Eweka II (1914–1932) after the 1897 war with the British. Author Kelechukwu Ajoku. 13 February 2018. CCA-SA 4.0 International license.

Oba Ewuare II and his family have been active members of the Benin Dialog Group, although at the same time they have repeatedly publicly criticized its aims and processes. In contrast, the Oba has fervently disputed any obligation to work with the proposed Edo Museum of West African Art. He has publicly described all others who claim any rights over the objects as “fraudsters.” In October 2022, Oba Ewuare II told the Benin Dialog Group that “We were never party to this concept… such group was incorporated in Nigeria without the knowledge or representation of the Royal Court of Benin.”

In a lengthy interview with David Frum published in The Atlantic in 2022,[16] the Oba denounced Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki and EMOWAA’s Phillip Ihenacho for trying to control what he regards as his property. The Oba told Frum that plans for a Royal Museum near the palace were already in place and that Edo State had allocated over a million $US in 2019 to build a “royal museum.” The Oba’s staff showed Frum designs for a museum building similar to the Oba’s palace.

The Oba’s approach to ownership of some of the greatest artworks ever produced in the continent of Africa – as essentially a personal collection that exalts his slave trading ancestors and his own status – hardly meets the expectations of contemporary museums or of public policy. Especially not today, when museums are constantly being exhorted to present “truths” about oppression and exploitation.

Nonetheless, knowledgeable, highly placed Nigerians as well as people he met on the street in Benin City in 2022 warned Frum never to discount the influence and power of the Oba. It seems they were right.

Security concerns?

Benin bronze head of an oba or king, circa 1650. Taken from museum and presented to Queen Elizabeth II by General Yakubu Gowon, Head of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria, during his State Visit to the United Kingdom, 12-15 June 1973. Courtesy Royal Collection Trust.

When anyone expresses concerns about the security of collections sent to Nigeria, a typical response is “how dare you to tell me what to do with my own stuff”? However, Nigerian officials have themselves been some of the most critical of their museum system. It will take time and a commitment on all sides to build a museum culture that will ensure that current international museum standards are met. At the same time that Nigeria should be applauded for its hard work to build a modern system, the lessons of the past should not be forgotten or ‘swept under the rug.’

As early as 1971, as Benin bronzes were becoming popular collectors’ items in the West, the archaeologist and scholar Ekpo Okpo Eyo, who served as director of Nigeria’s Federal Department of Antiquities from 1968 to 1979 and director general of the newly created NCMM until 1968, “had warned that sooner or later the Nigerian collections would disappear if a stop was not finally put to the theft.”[17]

It’s a fact that in the past, large numbers of Benin objects known to have been in the Lagos National Museum collection have disappeared through what can only be insider thefts, but these have not been investigated or prosecuted.

Some items that can clearly be identified as having gone missing were objects purchased by the British Museum from the Foreign Office after the 1897 raid and then sold back to the Nigerian State in the 1950s. Bronze plaques were often made in pairs and with similar imagery. The British Museum sold 4 Benin bronze plaques through a London gallery for £1100 pounds in order to determine a general valuation, but then sold at least 27 more to the Nigerian government for as little as £75 pounds each, according to a 1972 report.[18] The most recent sale of ‘duplicates’ took place in 1972; sales were halted after the museum was informed they were illegal under its charter.[19]

While most of the artworks that disappeared from Nigeria went to private collectors, some have surfaced when collectors gave them to public institutions. Two bronze plaques out of those delivered by the British Museum to the Lagos National Museum in 1950-1951 were donated by a New York collector to the Metropolitan Museum in 1991. These were returned to Nigeria, as the Met’s press release noted:

“Although they were never deaccessioned by the National Museum, the two plaques entered the international art market at an unknown date and under unclear circumstances… The Met reached out to the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments to seek clarity on the status of these works, and over the course of exchanges with staff there, it was decided that the works should be returned to Nigeria.”[20]

Another of the plaques that went to Lagos from the British Museum as a ‘duplicate’ was featured in 2016 in a U.S. auction sale of the collection of African American artist Merton D. Simpson.[21]

The Digital Benin database revelations.

Benin Bronze plaques from the Horniman Museum collection for repatriation to Nigeria. Courtesy Horniman Museum and Gardens, London.

Recent articles by distinguished ethnologist Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin on the German-funded “Digital Benin” database have raised questions not only about the disappearance of artworks from Nigerian museums but also about the adoption of a self-abasing perspective among Western institutions that derides ethnological collections as “the epitome of colonial injustice and rapacity” and reduces museums to “dens of robbers.”[22]

The Digital Benin database, located in the Museum am Rothenbaum (MARKK) in Hamburg, has documented 5246 Benin objects in 131 museums in twenty countries.[23] Dr. Hauser-Schäublin points to the difference between how museums in the global north have documented, registered, and managed their Benin collections, and compares this to the almost complete lack of provenance records, descriptions, quality photographs and other information at Nigerian museums housing similar items. She notes that the lack of adequate descriptions of Nigerian collections in the Digital Benin database raises very serious concerns, both about the fate of bronzes that have been previously documented but are no longer in the collections and about the database’s “tendentious approach to object histories,” in which “the disappearance of objects from Nigeria is taboo.”

She notes that German museums transferred the ownership rights to 1130 Benin artifacts to Nigeria in 2022, without any conditions; not even subject to the basic obligations of museums defined by ICOM, the International Council of Museums. Documentation and preservation, together with providing public access, are essential functions of museums, says Dr. Hauser-Schäublin. Both the unconditional transfer of ownership and the failure of the Digital Benin database to address what has happened to objects in Nigerian museums are unworthy of museum professionals.

“The fact that ethnological museums are archives of human history, preserving unique testimonies of the diversity of human cultures, has been lost in the loud confessions of guilt and mortifications of restitution. Nevertheless, it is precisely those collections that were created on the eve of global capitalist-consumerist appropriation that are the most significant for human history.”

Benin bronze plaques displayed at British Museum. Photo Joyofmuseums, 16 July 2018, CCA-SA 4.0 International license.

Dr. Hauser-Schäublin discusses how British colonial officials were the first to establish Nigerian museums and worked to obtain the finest objects for them, including bringing them back from Britain. She credits Jacob Egharevba (1893-1980), the Benin chief and court chronicler who was the director of the Regional Museum in Benin City, and Bernard Fagg, the colonial director of the Department of Antiquities, with convincing the Benin chiefs and the Oba to loan pieces to the Regional Museum, which currently shows holdings of 285 objects in the Benin Database.

But what, she asks, has become of some 400 objects supposedly housed in the museum in Lagos? She notes that:

“the first Nigerian director of the National Museums, Ekpo Eyo, a doctor of archaeology and an outstanding expert on the ancient cultures of Nigeria, already stated in writing in the 1980s that the museum in Lagos has the third largest Benin collection in the world; this should be around four hundred to five hundred objects.”[24]

According to Dr. Hauser-Schäublin, in 1963, Bernard Fagg “praised the “exceptionally exquisite collection of Benin bronzes and ivory sculptures which had been purchased [by the colonial government] for Nigeria in Europe and America.” He also described it as the world’s third best collection.

Hauser-Schäublin writes:

“As recently as 2016, Heritage Specialist Oyinloye wrote that he had seen over two hundred works of art in the museum’s Benin Gallery, plus others in the Symbol of Power Gallery and in the museum’s entryway.”[25]

According to the Digital Benin Database, the National Museum in Lagos now ranks 14th in the world with only 80 objects. Dr. Hauser-Schäublin notes that restitution activist Dan Hicks himself stated that there were 64 bronze plates with reliefs in Lagos, but that there are only 18 there now, and only two are from the British Museum.

Writing in January 2023, before issuance of the Order giving the Oba ownership and control of all restituted objects, Dr. Hauser-Schäublin asks “how the Nigerian state, which now owns the German Benin collections, can or will exercise control over the non-state EMOWAA, which is also in competition with the local state museum.”

How much less assured are donor museums and other institutions today that the Oba will promote the goals of documentation, preservation, and public access? Who will ensure that there is uncensored research or that the true story of the Benin bronzes will be told?

Will making the Oba owner strengthen African American objections to blanket restitutions?

Detail, Benin Bronze plaque depicting Chief Uwangue and Portuguese traders holding ‘manilla’, bronze bracelets used to purchase slaves; from the Horniman Museum collection to be sent to Nigeria. Courtesy Horniman Museum and Gardens, London.

Over the last year, African American slavery justice activists have addressed petitions to Britain’s Charity Commission, Germany’s Minister of State for Culture and the Media demanding that Benin bronzes not be restituted to the descendants of slave traders. They say that the global appreciation for the outstanding artistry of the Benin Kingdom must also acknowledge that the Benin Bronzes were made from melted down “manillas,” the currency used to purchase human beings for the slave trade for 300 years. The activists believe that Benin bronzes should be retained in global museums where slave descendants can access them and learn the true story of the Benin’ rulers domination of the West African slave trade. They argue that neither the Nigerian government nor the Oba will tell the brutal story of how Benin’s riches were acquired.

Executive Director Deadria Farmer-Paellman of the NY nonprofit Restitution Study Group also filed a class-action lawsuit on October 7, 2022 in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to halt the legal transfer of the Smithsonian’s Benin bronzes “on behalf of DNA descendants of enslaved Africans from the area known today as Nigeria — 93% of African Americans descend from enslaved people from Nigeria as do 82% of Jamaicans and other Caribbeans.” While unable to block the Smithsonian’s transfer, the group has vowed to continue their campaign to retain Benin bronzes in U.S. museums for the public benefit. As they see it, the Nigerian government’s transfer of authority and control to the Oba adds yet another reason for caution in making decisions to repatriate objects to Nigeria.

Additional Reading

Global Art and Heritage Law Series: Nigeria Report, Committee for Cultural Policy, 2020.

Key Issues in Return of Benin Artifacts Cultural Property News, August 27, 2017

Benin Dialog Group Cultural Property News, November 23, 2018.

Savoy-Sarr Report, A Summary. Cultural Property News, January 30, 2019

Nigeria – Support Cultural Expansion, Not Art Blockade, Cultural Property News, October 13, 2020

Where will Benin bronzes go? Nigerian government, Edo Museum or Oba? Cultural Property News, October 4, 2022.

Nigeria Welcomes Future Edo Museum of West African Art. Cultural Property News, January 20, 2021

Restitution Study Group Unable to Stop Smithsonian’s Benin Returns Cultural Property News, October 10, 2022

See also: Omolola Coker et al., Adepetun Caxton-Martins Agbor & Segun, Nigeria Report, Global Art and Heritage Law Series, 8, Committee for Cultural Policy, 2020

NOTES

[1] Notice No. 25, Order No.1 of 2023, Published in the Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette, Lagos, 28th March 2023, No. 57 Vol 110, pp A245-247.

[2] Emmanuel Addeh and Alex Enumah, FG Cedes exclusive Custody of Returned Bini Artefacts to Oba of Benin, This Day, April 10, 2023, https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2023/04/14/fg-cedes-exclusive-custody-of-returned-bini-artefacts-to-oba-of-benin/

[3] Id.

[4] Omolola Coker et al., Adepetun Caxton-Martins Agbor & Segun, Nigeria Report, Global Art and Heritage Law Series, 8, Committee for Cultural Policy, 2020, https://44670d.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/pdf/CCP-Global-Art-and-Heritage-Law-Series-Nigeria.pdf

[5] Id. at 12.

[6] Id. at 20.

[7] Among the most famous private collections today are those of the Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF) with over 7,000 objects and artworks) and the writer, dramatist, and 1986 Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. The Didi Museum, built in 1893, was the first private museum in Nigeria.See https://oyasaf.com/about-us.php

[8] Omolola Coker et al., Adepetun Caxton-Martins Agbor & Segun, Nigeria Report, Global Art and Heritage Law Series, 17, Committee for Cultural Policy, 2020, https://44670d.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/pdf/CCP-Global-Art-and-Heritage-Law-Series-Nigeria.pdf

[9] Among the international conventions signed are the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the Second Protocol of 1995, the 1970 UNESCO Convention of the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects and the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. Nigeria has also signed international conventions treating intangible cultural heritage and diversity of cultural expression.

[10] Omolola Coker et al., Adepetun Caxton-Martins Agbor & Segun, Nigeria Report, Global Art and Heritage Law Series, 8, Committee for Cultural Policy, 2020, https://44670d.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/pdf/CCP-Global-Art-and-Heritage-Law-Series-Nigeria.pdf.

[11] Id. at 15.

[12] Id.

[13] The proposed EMOWAA has made changes in its website since December 2022 eliminating specific references to the Benin bronzes and emphasizing contemporary art and community activities. A recent interview with Aindrea Emelife, EMOWAA’s new curator of modern and contemporary art, focused on contemporary works but also mentioned the museum’s plans to house artifacts looted by British troops. Gareth Harris, Nigeria’s hotly-anticipated Edo Museum of West African Art: newly appointed curator Aindrea Emelife discusses her plans, The Art Newspaper, 17 April 2023, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/04/17/nigerias-edo-museum-of-west-african-art-newly-appointed-curator-aindrea-emelife.

[14] However, the Nigerian government’s decision to vest the Benin bronzes in the person of the Oba may have been in the wind for a while. The proposed EMOWAA has made changes in its website since December 2022 eliminating specific references to the Benin bronzes and emphasizing contemporary art and community activities. See https://www.emowaa.com/.

[15] David Frum, Who Benefits When Western Museums Return Looted Art?, The Atlantic, September 14, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/10/benin-bronzes-nigeria-return-stolen-art/671245/

[16] Id.

[17] Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin, Welterbe in Gefahr: Wo Sind Die Benin-Bronzen Hin? FAZ, 2/28/2023, English translation by Google Translate, https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/benin-bronzen-in-gefahr-wie-ein-welterbe-verloren-geht-18709784.html.

[18] BBC News, Benin bronzes sold to Nigeria, 27 March 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1896535.stm.

[19] Maev Kennedy, British Museum sold precious bronzes, The Guardian, March 28, 2002, https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/mar/28/education.museums.

[20] Press release, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments Announce the Return of Three Works of Art to the Nigerian National Collections, Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 9, 2021, https://www.metmuseum.org/press/news/2021/met-and-ncmm-announcement.

[21] It had been published in Antiquities From The City Of Benin And From Other Parts Of West Africa In The British Museum, Read, Charles Hercules; Ormond Maddock Dalton, London: the British Museum, 1899. Item #1606.

[22] Supra, note 17.

[23] The Digital Benin database was funded by the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung with 1.5 million €. Its catalog is limited to museum/public collections. https://digitalbenin.org/. Dr. Hauser-Schäublin estimates that there are another 2000 some objects held in private collections worldwide, including the collection of the Oba of Benin.

[24] Supra, note 17.

[25] Supra, note 17.

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