Broken Memory News Today

Escape from the cold with two free exhibitions at BRIC House in Downtown Brooklyn, on view until January 21.

One of the first things we learn about the Benin bronzes is that they were made for the Oba of Benin by a guild of bronze casters he employed and that the sculptures were displayed in the Royal Museum in the Palace in Benin City until a British military force invaded Benin in 1897,stole the artefacts, killed many Benin people, children, women, and men, and burnt the city. The invaders carried away the Benin treasures to London where they sold the looted objects to American and European insti

Sidelining the Oba of Benin, whose forebears suffered the attack of 1897, seems a better choice for foreign partners and funders.