These sculptures and reliefs in bronze, brass and ivory were shipped from Africa by British soldiers during the Benin punitive expedition in 1897, and recently got into a collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

sculptural portrait of Oba (king)
People of Edo, Benin Kingdom, Nigeria,
end of XV - the beginning of the XVI century. (Gift of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts from Robert Lehmann)
Source: huffingtonpost.com

Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments Nigeria demanded the return of 32 artifacts that have recently entered the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston. These unique sculptures and relief plates of bronze, brass and ivory were shipped from Africa by British soldiers during the Benin punitive expedition in 1897.

Last month, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has received Nigerian artifacts a gift from a New York banker and collector Robert Owen Lehman (Robert Owen Lehman), who bought them in the 1950s and 1970s. Prior to this generous donation from the Boston Museum was just an artifact of a Nigerian and you can imagine the joy with which the museum received a gift of more than three dozen of the most valuable works. Now the previously little-studied artifacts from the collection of Robert Lehman will be available to a wide range of scholars and art lovers. The museum even has promised to build for the "Lehman Collection," a separate gallery at the end of 2013.

Nigeria Mixed Commission, however, the director of museums and monuments, Yusuf Abdullah Usman (Yusuf Abdallah Usman) equated the spoils of war to the British soldiers stolen property, he called artifacts, "the legacy of the great men of the kingdom of Benin and the whole of Nigeria in general." According to the Usman, is part of the history of the people, the loss is deeply experienced Nigerians.

This is not the first request the return of Nigeria's so-called "Benin Bronzes" and the other originating in the territory of the artifacts. However, the Western institutions and governments cleverly sidestep the requirements of Nigerians, being covered by these arbitrary time limits in the national laws on cultural heritage. For museums, whose collections are stored artefacts of Benin kingdom, the laws of Western countries are lenient. However, the controversy surrounding these artifacts will not stop, because the stolen property remains so regardless of when the theft occurred. The chances of returning Nigerians may increase their heritage now, when the Internet to this problem may be the world draw the attention of the general public.

Prepared by Mary Onuchina, AI

Sources : huffingtonpost.com , huffingtonpost.com , artinvestment.ru