In Cologne, the Rautenstrauch-Jost ethnographic museum hosts an exhibition of Benin bronzes.

In Cologne, the Rautenstrauch-Jost ethnographic museum hosts an exhibition of Benin bronzes. This is one of the most unusual museum projects in the world: exhibits are literally thinning out before our eyes, which cannot be said about the scandals associated with colonial wars and restitution – their number is only increasing. Tells Alexey Mokrousov.

There are few exhibitions in the world where perhaps the main exhibit is an empty showcase. There are even fewer exhibitions where exhibits disappear before our eyes.

The exhibition of bronzes of Benin in the Rautenstrauch-Joost Museum in Cologne is built according to this unusual principle: three showcases are already empty, although they are illuminated, the remaining works – the heads of rulers, vessels, brass boards with reliefs, sculptural groups with scenes of sacrifices or war – should also gradually leave the exhibition halls to close. And although everything shown is the property of the museum, no one is going to look for what is disappearing. Moreover, the museum parted with it voluntarily. By the end of the year, 52 items should return to Nigeria, on whose territory the Kingdom of Benin was formerly located (not to be confused with present-day Benin!), the remaining 37 will for now be stored in Cologne on a long-term lease basis.

What is happening in Cologne is part of a large program to return to Nigeria treasures taken from there by the British. In 1897, they bombarded and then plundered the royal capital, the palace of the supreme ruler “both” named Omonramwen was also not spared, the city itself was burned, and the ruler was sent into exile in the provinces. Omonramwen’s independent, sometimes inconsistent policies greatly annoyed the British. Nevertheless, this was not an “ordinary” colonial war, but a classic punitive expedition, full-scale revenge for the English detachment of 250 people destroyed by the Benin a year earlier. To avenge his death, the British sent 1.5 thousand soldiers and several ships.

All this allows today critics of the return of valuables to speak not about “stolen” art, but about typical war trophies, especially since few people then considered it art, more like objects of worship. In any case, the first Hague Convention on the Laws and Customs of War was adopted only two years later, in 1899; everything that happened with the “movement” of cultural property before – including the notorious robberies of European museums by Napoleon and his stocking of the Louvre with Egyptian treasures – does not seem to count.

Four thousand objects of either cult or art – according to other estimates, less than three thousand – were taken to London, where they began to be sold at auction to cover military expenses. The rest was transported to Europe and North America by traders and travelers over the decades. As a result, dozens of museums and private collections around the world have found themselves in possession of so-called Benin bronzes – in fact, most of them are made of brass. What was initially of little interest to anyone on the art market is now worth millions of dollars. The European avant-garde, primarily the German Expressionists and French Cubists, played a significant role in the promotion of African art; images of African sculptures can be seen on many canvases from the beginning of the century. Among the museums ahead, of course, is England; in the British Museum alone there are 700 Benin exhibits. After World War II, the museum even sold brass plaques from Benin, mistakenly considering them duplicates—most of them were bought by the Nigerian government, this is an example of the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized.

In our century, the history of this outright robbery led first to an international scandal, which gave rise to polemical publications in all languages, and then to the decision to return Nigeria to its former property.

Last year, the foreign ministers of Germany and Nigeria signed an agreement on the transfer of 1,130 items, some of the exhibits have already returned to Africa. The Ethnographic Museum of Berlin alone will return 500 items, although a third of them will remain in temporary storage in the German capital for ten years; they are now on display in the Humboldt Forum.

“Farewell” exhibitions of Benin art are held throughout Germany, from Hamburg to Dresden, from Frankfurt to Leipzig (there, in the Grassi Museum, there are 200 Benin objects; in total there are 263 in Saxony), but it is unlikely that anywhere else the exhibits are destined for the fate of returning to their homeland straight from the hall, just like in Cologne. Although the return time is set at 2023, in reality everything may take longer. The Germans are training Nigerian specialists at their own expense; Nigeria should have exhibition halls and storerooms equipped with the latest technology. And the latest news has again alarmed the public – the President of Nigeria has confirmed the private nature of the property, the returned property is transferred to the descendants of the “Oba” in their palace.

By the way, 36 of the items taken from Benin ended up in the St. Petersburg Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography named after Peter the Great, known as the Kunstkamera. This is the largest collection of Benin art in Russia. In 1900, the Kunstkamera received them as a gift from Leipzig University professor Hans Meir. I wonder if the question of transferring this gift was raised in recent months, full of increased attention from African politicians to Russia and vice versa.