"A commemorative bronze head, from around 1850, is a representation of the ancestor of a chief and would have been placed in the king's ancestral shrine."
"An 18th-century ivory tusk, also located on an ancestral shrine in the Royal Palace in Benin City, was mounted on a bronze memorial head and told the story of an Oba."
"These two works, which are 'ritual objects of great importance', says Bhagwati, will be sent back to Nigeria, likely this summer."
"The Nigerian side was very interested in the idea that the history and the artistry of Benin could be acknowledged through the return of these objects."
The Rietberg Museum in Zurich is transferring 11 objects from its collection back to Nigeria, including a commemorative bronze head and an 18th-century ivory tusk. These items were looted during the British raid on Benin City in 1897. The museum's director, Annette Bhagwati, emphasizes the cultural significance of these artifacts, which were originally part of ancestral shrines. While these two key pieces are being returned, the remaining nine objects will remain in Zurich despite the change in ownership.
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
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