The new Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) in Benin City, Nigeria, opens on 11 November, but instead of displaying original Benin bronzes looted by British colonial forces in 1897, visitors will see clay replicas. The $25m (£19m) museum, co-funded by European governments and western enterprises, was intended to be the permanent home for the returned artefacts, but only about 150 original bronzes have been repatriated over the past five years, and none are on public display.
The restitution process has been complicated by internal disputes in Nigeria over who is entitled to the bronzes: the federal government, Edo state, or the Oba of Benin, the descendant of the royal family from whom the artefacts were looted. Phillip Ihenacho, MOWAA's director and chair, said western institutions focused on being seen as pioneers in restitution without understanding the complexities within Nigeria.
European participants in the Benin Dialogue group, formed in 2007, believed the conflict had been resolved. In 2019, the group commissioned architect David Adjaye to design a museum for the bronzes. However, a 2021 interview in which the director of Berlin's Humboldt Forum suggested leaving empty spaces for the bronzes triggered a rush of returns, including from Aberdeen University in Scotland, but without a coordinated plan for their display in Nigeria.
The clay replicas are part of an installation by contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare, titled 'Nigeria Imaginary: Homecoming', far from the 'most comprehensive display of Benin bronzes in the world' promised when the museum was announced in 2020. The original bronzes remain in storage, awaiting resolution of the ownership disputes.
