Joseph Omoremi
19 September 2007
North — Tempers are high among Nigerians resident in Chicago, United States of Amercia (USA) following a planned exhibition of 220 royal artifacts allegedly stolen from Benin Kingdom during the colonial and post colonial era.
But consultations have begun to stave off possible legal action or confrontation between the affected Nigerians and organizers of the exhibition, Museum Fur Volkerkunde, Vienna in Austria.
The exhibition is slated for between July 10 and September 21, 2008 and would hold at the Arts Institute of Chicago (AIC).
A programme of events released by the institute recently listed "Benin Kings and Rituals: Courts Arts of Nigeria" as one of the proposed exhibition.
The art institute which is both a museum and school, was founded in 1879 to present temporary exhibitions that include loaned objects of art of all kinds; and to cultivate and extend the arts by appropriate means.
Kingsley Ehi, president of Edo Arts and Heritage in Chicago is scheduled to meet the exhibitors this week. "We have to choose our fight. We cannot return fire for fire because of the legal cost, Ehi told the Chicago Inquirer last week, adding "the artifacts don't belong to them. We expect them to return them to the rightful owner."
Prince Iyi Eweka, one of the descendants of Benin King and professor in neighboring Wisconsin will also be at the meeting. The meeting is being arranged by Leah Hope, a broadcaster with ABC television in Chicago and a member of AIC Leadership Advisory Committee.
Members of the Edo Arts and Heritage in Chicago were not particularly happy with statements credited to the Vienna museum that the artifacts would have been lost or stolen anyway if left in Benin, the capital of Edo State in the present day Nigeria had they not taken it in the first instance.
"We thank them for keeping it but since they realized that they are not the rightful owner, it should be returned to Benin. We are ready to work with them to find an amicable solution," Ehi who doubles as a real estate broker said.
Most of the artefacts to be exhibited in Chicago next year include finely cast bronze figures, altar heads, wall plaques, and staffs of office; sculpted ivories; royal regalia and jewellery in brass, coral, and ivory.
and other accoutrements of life at court.
"It includes many of the greatest Benin works now housed in collections
across Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Nigeria," according to a statement by AIC.
The exhibition is planned with unnamed prominent scholars of Benin art, history and culture as well as the cooperation of reigning Oba Erediauwa and the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria is expected to bring international attention and new perspectives to Benin art. Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka had lamented how precious Nigerian artefacts were stolen and replaced with
duplicates to deceive unsuspecting Nigerians and art lovers around the world.
He enumerated in his latest book "You must set forth at down" how Ipakoelede, a prized Ile Ife art was lumped in British museum along with other artefacts from Ile-Ife and Nigeria.
Hope is however ready to meet with other Nigerian organization to tone down any opposition to the exhibition and participate actively in Nigerian-American programs.
There are over 100,000 Nigerian-Americans across Chicagoland and a revived organization of Nigerian Community in Chicagoland (NCC.)
NCC scribe, Sam Aiwowo told The Chicago Inquirer that the Edo community
were open to discussions and that the United African Organization (UAO), the
umbrella organizations of Africans in Chicago would be involved in the talks.
Most of the artworks were either looted and auctioned after "Benin Punitive Expedition" captured Benin City in 1897 and burnt down the looted king's palace after a three day fighting.
A number of the loot were kept as souvenirs by the members of the expedition, and about 2500 pieces according to British official figures were taken to England, and were sold at auction in Paris (France) by the British Admiralty to offset the cost of the invasion and destruction of Benin City.
The British Museum bought 289 pieces of the loot, 1,085 pieces were bought by German museums and the rest by private collectors.
The majority of these stolen Edo artworks are today on display in many European museums, whose curators insist that the loot in their possessions were legitimately acquired.
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