John Lubbock explores how the restitution of looted historical artefacts is being navigated by cultural institutions around the world
The publication of Professor Dan Hicks’ The Brutish Museums on the British imperial looting of Benin City in 1897 has helped to accelerate a debate about the violent histories of the objects displayed in museums. It is also part of a wider reassessment of the role of history in the modern structure of racial discrimination, in which the voices of dispossessed groups need to be amplified.
Hicks’ book describes how the expansion of Britain’s militarist colonialism in west Africa used the cover of humanitarian intervention to overthrow local rulers like the Oba of Benin, killing thousands and destroying their cultural history. African rulers were accused of preventing Britain’s legitimate commercial activities, as well as of slave-trading and cannibalism. We now see these justifications for the crude excuses they always were, perhaps prompted by more recent experience of Western ‘humanitarian intervention’ in the Middle East.
The debate about cultural restitution of stolen items has often centred on institutions such as the British Museum. Hicks says, however, that the museum “holds less than 10% of what was taken in 1897” and that it needs to be “de-centred in these conversations”.
“The rest of the country/world will lead, and the UK’s national museums will eventually catch up,” he adds.
The University of Aberdeen recently announced that it will return the Benin Bronze in its collection, while Germany’s Foreign Minister has been in Nigeria for talks on the full return of its looted Benin Bronzes. This piles pressure on other institutions to do the same, including the British Museum, the website of which states: “There are around 900 objects from the historic Kingdom of Benin in the British Museum’s collection.”
The British Museum says that, while “His Royal Majesty Oba Ewuare II repeated his request for Benin collections to be returned… no formal written request has been received for the return of the Museum’s Benin collections in their entirety”.
Hicks’ says that, “in the view of many curators, myself included, ‘we haven’t received a formal claim’ is no longer an ethically acceptable reply”.
Imagine the Reverse
The Royal Collection at Windsor lists a Benin Bronze head on its catalogue website. The Guardian recently reported that “police have been barred from searching the Queen’s private estates for stolen or looted artefacts” and that “a spokesperson for the Queen dismissed any suggestion that stolen or looted artefacts were being held on the monarch’s private estates”.
Surely the monarch herself cannot be guilty of being in receipt of stolen goods?
A Royal Collection Trust spokesperson told Byline Times that “questions concerning the restitution of items from the Royal Collection are matters for discussion by the Trustees of The Royal Collection Trust… We have nothing further to add at present.”
The BBC meanwhile recently published an article about private collectors who continue to profit from the sale of Benin Bronzes. One said: “Part of me will always feel guilty for not giving it to the Nigerians… It’s a murky past, tied up with colonialism and exploitation. But that’s in the past.” Another collector said that “one bumbles along for 77 years and suddenly this has become a sensitive subject. It never was before”. The BBC’s article states that one Benin Bronze was sold in 2016 for £10 million.
The Legacy Restitution Trust (LRT) is helping to create a new museum in Benin City to facilitate the return of stolen objects.
Enotie Ogbebor, an artist and LRT board member, told Byline Times that the Government in Edo State created the independent trust to raise the funds and manage the museum so that it is protected from the whims of domestic politics and funding. The board of the LRT has a representative from the Royal Palace of Benin, from the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, and the Edo State Government.
Imagine if we had come into the museums in the UK 124 years ago and removed all the artefacts, removed all the works of Shakespeare, Mozart, Beethoven, Whistler, Homer.
Enotie Ogbebor
The LRT has commissioned Sir David Ajaye to design the museum, has acquired land near the palace, and is collaborating with international partners to conduct archaeological activities. It is also constructing a pavilion, akin to a vault, which will be finished next year, where restituted items will be stored and kept until the museum is complete.
“Discussions are proceeding but it is clear to us also that, in the case of the British Museum, only an Act of Parliament will result in the restitution of objects in their possession,” Ogbebor said. “Because, through an Act of Parliament, they have been prevented from giving out cultural artefacts from institutions. We try to be realistic here, the onus is on the British Government to do the right thing.”
Ogbebor also posed an apt question to the British people: “Imagine if we had come into the museums in the UK 124 years ago and removed all the artefacts, removed all the works of Shakespeare, Mozart, Beethoven, Whistler, Homer, everybody, and locked it away for the past 124 years, and the British people had no access to any of these, do you think Britain would