The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) is closing its Benin Kingdom Gallery today (28 April) and returning some of the displayed works to their donor.
The gallery opened in 2013 after the museum accepted a gift from American banker Robert Owen Lehman of his collection of West African works from the 16th to 18th centuries.
The museum and Lehman have now agreed to return five loaned objects to Lehman, instead of repatriating them to their place of origin.
Museum seeking solution for Benin bronzes
These objects are Benin bronzes, donated by Lehman between 2012 and 2020. Many works in Lehman’s collection were looted by the British during the Benin Expedition of 1897.
Institutions to repatriate Benin bronzes to Nigeria in recent years include the Horniman Museum in London, the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne, Germany, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art.
Remaining works in the Benin Kingdom Gallery will go on display in late June in the Art of Africa Gallery as the museum continues to seek a resolution regarding the ownership of works from the Kingdom of Benin.
“The MFA was the first American museum to launch a colonial-era provenance project. We strive to be a leader in ethical stewardship and reaching judicious restitution decisions,” said Matthew Teitelbaum, the museum’s director.
“Unfortunately, we were not able to make progress on a mutually agreeable resolution for our gallery of Benin bronzes.
“Without such a resolution, the gallery could not be sustained in the long term.”
The objects going on view in the adjacent gallery for African art include a commemorative head, a pendant, a relief plaque showing two officials with raised swords, and a relief plaque showing a war chief with two attendants.
Gallery to become space for Nubian art
Also, the museum will keep and display one loan from Lehman, a bronze commemorative head of a defeated leader, which was outside the Benin Kingdom by the 1880s and not looted in 1897.
In the future, the Benin Kingdom Gallery will be turned into a space for displaying the museum’s collection of Nubian art.
Images courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
