Note: the ownership rights of the Benin bronzes are currently being clarified | Photographer: Axel Killian | Rights management: Städtische Museen Freiburg
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 InternationalAma
Information about the language not available
Bronze relief plate
Relief plates of this type, using the lost-wax casting process, were placed on wooden poles of the long, square galleries of the palace in the old Kingdom of Benin (around 900 CE until the end of the 19th century).
Data Provider
Show only fields containing data
Cataloguing data
Cultural attribution
Edo
Object type
Relief
Dimensions
Width: 360.0 mm
Height: 550.0 mm
Height: 550.0 mm
Material/Technique
Bronze, Yellow moulding
Current location
Museum Natur und Mensch
Inventory number
I/0051
Related object(s)
Provenance and sources
when
16th/17th century
when
13.10.1904
where
Benin (location/origin)
Nigeria (location/origin)
Africa (location/origin)
Provenance
The so-called Benin bronzes were captured in the course of a British punitive expedition against the Kingdom of Benin in 1897, on what is now the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
in what is now the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The "Benin bronzes" found their way to museums and collections in
museums and collections in Europe and North America.
The ethnological collection of the Museum Natur und Mensch currently holds ten objects from the Kingdom of Benin. These came to the former Museum of Natural History and Ethnology of the City of Freiburg through acquisitions between 1899 and 1907.
In the early 1970s, shortly after independence, the young state of Nigeria first demanded the return of art treasures from European museums that had been taken away by the British army as spoils of war after the destruction of the Kingdom of Benin in 1897 and sold in Europe. In 2021, the German government announces the return of the "Benin Bronzes". On 1 July 2022, the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Germany sign a political declaration of intent. Based on the declaration that has now been signed, future restitution agreements can be concluded between German museums and the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM). The City of Freiburg is also currently examining how the objects can be returned.
The ethnological collection of the Museum Natur und Mensch currently holds ten objects from the Kingdom of Benin. These came to the former Museum of Natural History and Ethnology of the City of Freiburg through acquisitions between 1899 and 1907.
In the early 1970s, shortly after independence, the young state of Nigeria first demanded the return of art treasures from European museums that had been taken away by the British army as spoils of war after the destruction of the Kingdom of Benin in 1897 and sold in Europe. In 2021, the German government announces the return of the "Benin Bronzes". On 1 July 2022, the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Germany sign a political declaration of intent. Based on the declaration that has now been signed, future restitution agreements can be concluded between German museums and the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM). The City of Freiburg is also currently examining how the objects can be returned.
Information about the record
Legal status metadata
Related objects
The name of this item is missing in its original language. If you know the name or have any comments, please use the form to get in touch with the institution that provided the data.
The name of this item is missing in its original language. If you know the name or have any comments, please use the form to get in touch with the institution that provided the data.
This content was machine-translated