Looted Benin Art Treasures "Donated" to Boston Museum by Lehman Bankers

Benin art work depicting a battle scene. The heirs to Benin royalty have challenged Sotheby's and others for selling looted cultural treasures from the traditional West African state., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Arts with Tajudeen Sowole

Friday, 29 June 2012

After Sotheby's controversial sales, grandson of another benefiary discloses over thirty of 1897 looted Benin art pieces

About two years after Sotheby’s was forced to cancel a proposed sales of some 15th century looted art pieces of Benin origin, another heir of one of the beneficiaries of the 1897 expedition has surfaced as 32 works from the ancient West African city have been donated to Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, U.S.

According to the Wall Street Journal and other media sources in the U.S., the 28 bronzes and six ivories are donations from New York collector, Robert Owen Lehman, who is the great-grandson of a famous American banker and collector Late Philip Lehman.

Mr. Lehman’s great-grandfather, it was reported, founded the defunct investment firm Lehman Bros, and started “buying West African artworks at auctions in the 1950s and has since amassed a prized group of bronze figures from Benin as well as several ivory objects from 15th-century Sierra Leone.”

In December 2010, Sotheby’s was forced to cancel a proposed London sales of six Benin artefacts, including an ivory-made pendant mask of Queen Idia, the London, after an outcry and protests over the questionable acquisition of the works.

Works in the Sotheby’s cancelled sales were from the descendants of Lionel Galway, an army officer whose efforts led to the looting of the Benin Kingdom in 1897. Late Colonel (Sir) Lionel Henry Gallway (he later changed his surname to Galway) was the Deputy Commissioner and Vice-consul in the then newly created Oil Rivers Protectorate.

Few hours ago, all the news sources monitored suggested that Lehman’s donated works are from the 1897 looting of Benin.

Another online news medium states: Highlights include a 15th-century bronze bust of a young man with tightly braided hair and almond-shaped eyes, his lips forming a subtle frown.

The work, Commemorative Head of a Defeated Neighboring Leader," once stood on an ancestral altar as proof of past triumphs.

Also in the group of donated works is a stylized royal portrait from the late 16th century, Commemorative Head of an Oba, which shows the ruler's head chin-deep in a collar made from coral beads and capped with a crown made from braided strings and other beads.

The Boston museum is planning an exhibition of the works.

Most interesting however, the Boston museum management was quoted as arguing that the gifts meet all legal standard. Senior curator of African and Oceanic Art of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston museum, Christraud Geary stated: “We have looked at the legal situation here at the museum and we’ve come to the conclusion that the gift meets all of our standards,” said Geary.

She said there was no official claims for the works, and Rogers agreed there has been no claim made.

The museum’s director, MFA director Malcolm Rogers said “What entered my thinking was that here was a wonderful opportunity to move into the public domain objects which hadn’t been seen for decades and which spoke so wonderfully of the great African culture.”


Response Message
From DR.KWAME OPOKU
29 June 2012 05:49

Obviously, the artefacts which seem to have come from the notorious 1897 invasion of Benin must be returned to the rightful owners, the Royal Family of Benin. Any suggestion that there are no legal problems with acquisitions from the criminal invasion is simply not true and those who express such views know they are not correct. We have stated in several articles the objections to the continued illegal detention or retention of African, particularly the Benin, artefacts in the West.

The Boston Museum of Fine Art has had a brush with Italy over looted artefacts from Italy and had been obliged to return some of the looted objects. But we should take note of the attitude and methods of the Italians that finally secured the return of their artefacts: they used threats of cutting of co-operation with museums that hold their looted objects, they pursued legal actions and used pressure, they tried an American curator who was in jail for a while, they visited the museums and made studies of the objects that were widely published in the media.

In short, Italy did all it could and obtained success. Is Nigeria going to learn from the successful experience of Italy? Has there been an approach from the Nigerians to the Italians in this matter or are they still taking advice and training from the very institutions that are illegally holding Nigerian artefacts?