The German minister of culture has announced plans to return hundreds of works of art to Nigeria. Their origin is the Benin Royal Palace in Benin City in southern Nigeria, which was looted and destroyed by the British in 1897. Apparently the objects will be deposited in the Edo Museum of West African Art, which is under construction in Benin City. Its architect – or rather, star architect – is David Adjaye, the Anglo-Ghanaian architect who was the lead designer for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. When the objects will return is unclear. The construction of the museum is far from over; Adjaye stated it could take five years.
The German minister described the return as a question of “moral responsibility”. Some Western media tie the agitation for the return of African art in European and American collections to the “accounting” of colonialism and Western racism. The German form of colonialism was particularly brutal. The Germans were not in Edo, however, and the items from there were probably looted items that were bought on the international art market and then donated to German museums. The German decision has put pressure on London’s British Museum, which owns more than any other museum seven hundred pieces from the Benin bronzes collection, and other institutions to lend or return bronzes to Nigeria. Maybe there are only fifty pieces left in Nigeria at the moment.
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Africa southern of the Sahara
The call for the return of the art that western countries acquired during colonial times is an old song. Some countries, especially those with weak national identities, see the return of art as a dimension of national construction. Other cases are more closely a matter of principle. Since the nineteenth century, the Greeks have campaigned for the British return of the Parthenon sculptures (the “Elgin Marbles”). This perspective assumes that the art produced in a particular place belongs in a unique way to the people who now live there, hence the importance of its physical return. Another perspective is that art belongs to all of humanity. In this case, what matters is the art’s accessibility to anyone who wishes to see and study it, and its preservation and safety, not its physical location. For example, the Elgin Marbles are permanently on display at the British Museum, where they are fully protected in a country marked by political stability and where the public has unrestricted access.
One problem related to the return of African art to Africa has been the lack of places to display, safely store, and curate it. That seems to be changing. The Edo Museum is designed as a first class facility. However, the museum is in a poor, increasingly unstable country. Where sustainable funding comes from or how the security of art can be maintained is unclear.
The Edo Museum sponsors are looking for rotating exhibits of works of art to be loaned from European and American collections and then returned. Such an approach could satisfy those who view art as a sign of their ethnic or national identity and those who view art as belonging to all of humanity.
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More to:
Nigeria
Germany
Social issues
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Africa southern of the Sahara
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