British museum stolen sclapture
and historical artifacts from everywhere in the earth. which cover more than one 2 million years of human history.
If you follow the museum’s sculpture list Like this Easter Island sculpture that’s
about a thousand years old. Or this bronze sculpture of the Hindu God Shiva.
In all the museum sculpture stolen.and we can see an example of it along this route.Out of these 12 pieces,
nearly half have disputed ownership.
The British Museum claims those pieces belong there, on display for the planet to ascertain .
But in recent years, many are fighting
to get them back to England. "The list of disputed museum treasures keeps on growing"
“Should cultural artifacts be returned
to their home countries or be left in England museums?"
"The subject of intense debate on who should now own them”
Let’s start with some context.
In the late 1600s, British Empire began
expanding across several continents.
It became the most important empire in history, controlling about a quarter of the world’s land and population.
During its centuries along rule, the empire
took precious resources and wealth
from countries all round the world,Including thousands of cultural and historical artifacts. Many of which ended over here , within the British Museum which was founded in 1753 and kept growing to accommodate all the new pieces in its collection.
Lots of the things within the museum were legally acquired
and are completely undisputed, like this one.
A 2,000 year old roman vase sold
to the museum by a Duke in 1945.
The problem is with the pieces that are disputed.
Like the first item you see as soon as you enter .
The Rosetta stone , taken by British troops
from the French in what's now Egypt.
Or further in, the Parthenon Sculptures.
Removed from the acropolis in Athens by a
British Lord, and sent to British Museum.
Or, over here.
On the ground dedicated to African Art.
The Benin Bronzes.
Some of the foremost contentious items within the museum.
The Benin Bronzes are quite hard to categorize,
because they include such an enormous range of
items.
From engraved ivory tusks
to brass sculptures
to plaques.
But they were all produced here,
in the Kingdom of Benin in present-day Nigeria.
This wealthy and industrious kingdom produced
thousands of objects
and art pieces starting within the 1500s.
A lot of the things adorned palace walls and
were used for religious rituals.
But they weren’t just decorative...
They were visual archives of the dominion
in a society that didn't develop written script
as we all know them.
That’s Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu, an art
historian and professor from Nigeria
who teaches at Princeton University .
They told their history,
how they narrated the histories of kingship
of the dominion . Its political and social life.
But in 1897 would lose thousands of those cultural pieces.
At the time, European colonial powers were
expanding south, in what was called the
“Scramble for Africa”.
They break up the continent into spheres of
influence for financial exploitation.
All these pink areas were British ones.
Benin, over here, was in Britain’s sphere
of influence.
But the dominion didn’t comply
with Britain's trade demands.
And in January of 1897 it led to what was
called the Benin Disaster.
Where Benin guards killed seven British emissaries,
plus their many guides and servants.
In response 1,200 British troops embarked
on a mission called the
“Benin Punitive Expedition”.
The British wanted revenge, but the mission
was about quite just that.
There were reports of those vast
treasures within the palace of the king of Benin,
and that if they might retrieve these treasures,
sales from it could offset the value of the invasion
This was all strategically .
And so the punitive expedition,
in other words, was also an economic enterprise.
The British soldiers armed with machine guns
conquered the town and burned it to the bottom .
But not before carefully taking thousands
of artifacts.
They piled them up neatly, photographed them
and even labeled them “loot”.
This photo, taken at the Benin palace after the raid,
shows soldiers with the dismantled
plaques that were delivered to British Museum,
and sold everywhere the planet .
And after many years,
the once prosperous kingdom was gone.
The region fell under full British colonial
control until 1960, when Nigeria, including
the City of Benin, gained independence.
But albeit they were finally free,
their historical artifacts
were still spread everywhere the planet .
Locked up in western institutions,
like the Leipzig Museum of Ethnology in Germany
and the Quai Branly Museum in Paris.
And, of course, British Museum.
1995.
In London.
That was my first time seeing an ingenious ancient Benin artwork.
Yes. At British Museum.
Being within the presence of those magnificent objects
and knowing that I had to travel all
the way from Nigeria
to see these objects for the primary time...
It was a mix of pride.
At the achievement of those ancient artists.
And anger. Mixed with a way of loss, at
what could are
if I only had to travel a couple of hundred miles.
But at now , you're limited to those
privileged like me who could get a visa to
travel all the way from Nigeria to England
to encounter these objects.
Most Nigerians will never see them.
In March 2000, Benin’s royalty tried
to change that.
They officially requested “all cultural
property illegally taken… be returned to
the rightful owner”
But for the foremost part British Museum has
ignored any requests.
The museum is restricted by a government act
that prevents it from returning objects.
But it's also made its stance clear.
In July of 2020, British Museum told Vox:
“We don’t restitute but we are absolutely
committed to lending as widely as possible,
including to Nigeria. The Museum’s foundational
value resides in its breadth, scale, complexity,
and unity and intrinsically may be a true library of the planet .”
Chika doesn’t see it that way.
The British Museum still behaves
like a colonial museum.
You cannot claim to be...
an encyclopedic collector of stolen objects.
But some are beginning to reckon with this history.
In 2014, the grandson of this British soldier
from the 1897 Benin Expedition,
returned these two items he inherited
to the Benin royalty .
And in 2007, the Benin Dialogue Group was formed.
Western museums and therefore the Nigerian government
have been discussing solutions ever since.
But as of today,
none of their Benin Bronzes are returned.
But this is often only one story.
This legacy is greater than the Benin Bronzes.
There are many similarly contested
objects within the British Museum,
with their own rich histories — and with original owners
trying to retrieve them.
But the matter is even bigger than British Museum.It’s a legacy of centuries of colonial power that repeats itself again and again.
With different artifacts, in several museums.Because these requests aren’t almost items, they are also about cultural and historical identityand who gets to have it.This is an extended term project.It may last beyond my very own lifetime.