Iowa’s Stanley Museum of Art Becomes First in the US to Return Benin Bronzes

The University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art has become the first in the United States to restitue its holdings of Benin Bronzes, to the Oba of Benin, the former head of the royal family of Benin and steward of its legacy. Two objects, a brass plaque and wooden altarpiece, were formally returned in a ceremony held on July 15 at the Benin Palace in Nigeria.

The Benin Bronzes are a group of thousands of objects plundered by British troops from the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now Nigeria, during a raid of the royal palace in 1897. The 3,000 artifacts include figurines, tusks, likeness of Benin’s rulers, and sacred masks, the bulk of which now reside with state museums in Europe. In recent years, the Benin Bronzes have become a litmus test of such institutions’ readiness to return objects acquired by illicit means to their countries of origin. 

In early 2023, the Nigerian government declared that the current Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, is the rightful custodian of the artifacts. The development hasn’t been without controversy: In 2022, the German government approved the restitution of 22 Benin bronzes to Nigeria, but the return has stalled amid fears that world heritage risks disappearing into the private collection of the royal family. 

Speaking to the Art Newspaper, Lauren Lessing, the director of the Stanley Museum of Art, didn’t share those concerns: “It is not my job to tell people what to do with their own possessions. The two works of art restituted were stolen from the Oba of Benin in 1897, and they belong to him.

“The best way for museums to ensure that the public can see these works in the future is to approach the Oba, as they would any other potential lender, and ask. The Oba has said that he intends to lend these important works to museums around the world and I have no reason to doubt him. Ultimately, however, he has the right to say yes to loan requests and he also has the right to say no.”

The Stanley Museum of Art created a research position dedicated to restitution in 2020. The position is currently filled by Mason Koelm, who established the provenance, or history of ownership, of the two bronzes in the museum’s collection from the 1897 plunder to the present. In 2022, the museum’s collections committee and advisory board voted to formally deaccession the two artifacts from the collection, which were then re-classified as on loan to the Stanley from the Oba of Benin.

Nigerian officials have renewed calls for the British Museum to return its Benin Bronzes following news of missing, stolen, and damaged items within the institution. The London institution owns more than 900 artifacts looted from Benin, one of the largest such collections in the United Kingdom and Europe. The museum received a written request for their return from Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Information and Culture in October 2021.

“It’s shocking to hear that the countries and museums that have been telling us that the Benin Bronzes would not be secure in Nigeria, have thefts happening there,” the director of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Abba Isa Tijani, told Sky News.