Newcastle Museum to Return Benin’s Bronze Pentagram | Museums

A Beninese bronze in a Newcastle museum collection will be proactively returned to Nigeria, the latest in a series of repatriations that increase pressure on the British Museum to do the same.

heads of the Great Museum of the North: Hancock announced that it had recently been established that a brass walking stick with a distinctive bird finial had been looted from Benin City by the British Army in 1897.

It was taken during the ugly “punitive expedition” in which a palace and much of the old city were destroyed. The bronzes, some 4,500 plates, statues and other objects actually made of a brass alloy, were subsequently auctioned to defray the expenses of the expedition.

They are found in museum collections around the world and there has been a growing momentum for institutions to repatriate them voluntarily.

It was announced on Wednesday that the Newcastle museum would do just that, following the lead of institutions like Jesus University, Cambridge and the University of Aberdeen by returning the bronze.

Vee Pollock, Dean of Culture and Creative Arts, Newcastle University, which has the administration of the collections, said that he “did not hesitate” in making the decision. “There is no real doubt for us that the right thing to do was to offer their return.”

The distinctive object, currently on display at the museum, was acquired in 1951 after the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum dispersed non-medical objects from its collection.

The original key cards for the objects were recently digitized, Pollock said. “We were able to trace the provenance, which let us categorically know that it was part of the punitive expedition.”

Pollock said the decision was an important one, but a continuation of the work he had been doing since the early 2000s, when the museum returned human remains to New Zealand and Australia.

In this case, the evidence categorically stated that the object was illegally stolen “and in circumstances that I doubt anyone would condone it.”

Keith Merrin, editor of the Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, said returning the staff was the right thing to do. “Repatriation can be a powerful cultural, spiritual and symbolic act that acknowledges the mistakes of the past and restores a sense of justice,” he said.

The return is part of the broader museum repatriation and decolonization policy.

The kingdom of Benin, in what is now southern Nigeria and not to be confused with present-day Benin, was one of the most important and powerful pre-colonial states in West Africa.

Germany has said that this year it will return Benin bronzes to its public collections to Nigeria. The Washington Smithsonian has also pledged to repatriation.

All of which increases pressure on the British Museum, home to the most famous collection of Benin bronzes, around 900, in London. He has not agreed to return the bronzes but is a member of the Benin Dialogue Group.

A central goal of the group is to establish a new museum in Benin City to enable “the world’s most comprehensive display of Benin bronzes.” The Ghanaian-British architect Sir David Adjaye designed it.

A spokesperson for the British Museum said: “We believe that the strength and public value of the British Museum collection lies in its breadth and depth, enabling millions of visitors each year to understand the cultures of the world and how they are interconnected to over time, whether through trade, migration, conquest, or peaceful exchange.

“The museum understands and recognizes the importance of return issues and works with communities, colleagues and museums around the world to share the collection as widely as possible.”