Episode 206 - What's Benin Going On?

We meant to tackle this question before, but we can’t wait any longer! The Benin Bronzes have received media attention lately in a series of newsworthy announcements to repatriate them to Nigeria from various museums in North America and Europe. What are these alliterative artifacts, and how did thousands of them disappear from the Kingdom of Benin only to appear by the hundreds in museums overseas?

Links

• The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence, and Cultural Restitution (via Bookshop)

• The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence, and Cultural Restitution (via Worldcat)

• History of Archaeological Research in the Yoruba-Edo Region of Nigeria: New Directions for Urban Earthenworks (William & Mary ScholarWorks)

• Story of cities #5: Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace (The Guardian)

• Ron Eglash (TED)

• Benin Kingdom (Dallas Museum of Art)

• The Benin Bronzes Aren’t Just Ancient History. Meet the Contemporary Casters Who Are Still Making Them Today (Artnet)

• The Dating Game: The Scientific Analysis of Benin Copper-Alloy Art-From TL to ²¹°Pb (Open Access Journal of Archaeology & Anthropology)

• This Art Was Looted 123 Years Ago. Will It Ever Be Returned? (New York Times)

• The Benin Bronzes, Explained: Why a Group of Plundered Artworks Continues to Generate Controversy (ArtNews)

• Horniman to return ownership of Benin bronzes to Nigeria (Horniman Museum and Gardens)

• Benin Bronze ”permanently removed” from Jesus hall (The Cambridge Student)

• Major new archaeology project on site of new museum in Benin (British Museum Blog)

• Recovering the Brilliance of a Benin Bronze (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Image: One of the many Benin bronzes still held and displayed by the British Museum