US returns Benin Bronzes stolen by British colonial forces

A bronze sculpture of a West African king that was in the collection of a Rhode Island museum for more than 70 years is among 31 culturally precious objects that have been returned to the Nigerian government.

The sculpture, called the Head of a King, or Oba, which was held at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum (RISD) was among the objects transferred to the Nigerian National Collections during a ceremony at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC on Tuesday.

The Benin Bronzes were stolen in 1897 when British colonial forces ransacked and looted the kingdom of Benin, which is now in modern-day Nigeria.

“In 1897 the ‘Head of an Oba’ was stolen from the Royal Palace of Oba Ovonranwmen,” RISD Museum Interim Director Sarah Ganz Blythe said in a statement.

“The RISD Museum has worked with the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments to repatriate this sculpture to the people of Nigeria where it belongs,” Blythe said.

The pieces that were stolen in the late 19th century included 29 that the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents voted in June to return to Nigeria and one object from the National Gallery of Art, officials said.

The Head of a King, which is believed to date to the 1700s, was given to the RISD Museum by Lucy Truman Aldrich in 1939. It had been acquired in a 1935 sale of objects from the Benin Kingdom from the Knoedler Gallery in New York, the museum said in a statement.

A French customs stamp on the interior suggests it had been held in a French collection.

The RISD Museum said the sculpture is almost certainly one of the looted objects, even though it has not been able to trace the piece to a specific French or British collection.

Agencies