B
ENIN CITY, or Edo as it was known in its heyday at the start of the 17th century, was a confident metropolis, a place of creativity and military power. In 1600 a Dutch visitor described an impressive central avenue seven or eight times broader than Warmoesstraat, one of the main shopping streets in Amsterdam, and a palace for the Oba
, or head of the ruling dynasty, “so large, that you can feel no End”. The walls were decorated with ivory sculptures and elaborate metal plaques depicting hunters, musicians, courtiers and animals including leopards, elephants and crocodiles.
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The plaques, produced in what is now Nigeria, were looted during the British military occupation and have been in museums and a private collection since 1897.
Junior Court Official is one of two 16th-century plaques produced at the Court of Benin that will be returned to Nigeria by the Met. Credit: Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art Sends Three Benin Bronzes Home To Nigeria By
at 1:56 pm NPR
Beautiful bronze sculptures and castings from West Africa have long been exhibited in some of the world s most august institutions, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced Wednesday it s returning three of these artworks to Nigeria. They include two 16th-century brass plaques created at the Court of Benin, and a brass head produced in Ife around the 14th century.