Production
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when
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19th century
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 International
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Uhumwela
Information about the language not available
Bust
Commemorative heads were part of royal ancestral altars. The two wing-like headdresses are a unique feature when dating the heads from the 19th century. They represent two attached feathers as a sign of great age, wisdom and authority. The kings of Benin had immense power: they ruled the empire, received taxes and tributes and controlled trade.
- Data Provider
- Museen Freiburg Show original at data provider
Cataloguing data
- Cultural attribution
- Edo
- Object type
- Büste
- Dimensions
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Height: 360.0 mm
Diameter: 270.0 mm - Material/Technique
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Bronze, Yellow moulding
- Current location
- Museum Natur und Mensch
- Inventory number
- I/0050
- Related object(s)
Provenance and sources
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Production
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Change of legal title:
Purchase-
when
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13.07.1907
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Change of physical control or legal title
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where
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Benin (location/origin)Nigeria (location/origin)Africa (location/origin)
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who
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Fenton & Sons - Collectors
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Assignment to a curated holding:
Africa
- Provenance
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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.
Information about the record
- Legal status metadata
- CC0 1.0 DEED
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