CultureSub-Saharan Africa
The Benin Bronzes
Metalwork that changed Europe's view of Africa — and was looted
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When the bronzes reached London, several European experts held that Africans could not possibly have made them and looked for Portuguese or Egyptian origins — a reaction that says more about the assumptions of the time than about the works. Restitution is now under way, and the case has become a test of how museums deal with looted collections.
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Craftsmen in the kingdom of Benin cast thousands of brass plaques and heads with a technical quality that astonished Europeans. In 1897 the British burned the city and carried the art away. Most of it still stands in museums outside Nigeria.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org