{"id":20100,"date":"2022-11-11T09:37:10","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T09:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/international-team-creates-database-of-benin-bronzes-stolen-by-colonialists"},"modified":"2022-11-11T09:57:49","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T09:57:49","slug":"international-team-creates-database-of-benin-bronzes-stolen-by-colonialists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/international-team-creates-database-of-benin-bronzes-stolen-by-colonialists","title":{"rendered":"International Team Creates Database of Benin Bronzes Stolen by Colonialists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Angola. <\/strong><\/span>Thousands of art objects were looted by British soldiers during an 1897 punitive expedition in the Kingdom of Benin, situated in what is now Nigeria. Later, 5,240 of the famous Benin Bronzes were transported to European and North American museums.<\/b><\/p>\n

The Digital Benin platform, launched on Wednesday, is the most complete digital database of traditional West African art objects, known as the Benin Bronzes of the Edo culture. The creation of the database is the result of an international research effort that lasted for two years and cost \u20ac1.5 million, provided by the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation.<\/p>\n

Barbara Plankensteiner, the director of Hamburg\u2019s Museum am Rothenbaum and Digital Benin’s principal investigator, said that while some bronzes that are in private collections might not be included in the database, it is nevertheless “99%” complete and open to further updates using archival records, photographs, and ownership changes. After its completion, the database is planned to be handed over to a suitable institution in Nigeria.<\/p>\n

By providing the history of the objects in the context of the Edo culture, the project once again raises questions over the need for repatriation of African cultural heritage. According to researchers, around 5,000 of the objects listed in the database were possibly looted. The origin of some 400 items remains unclear.<\/p>\n

The sources of the project are data provided by 131 museums in 20 countries. Some of the institutions that participated (including Berlin\u2019s Ethnological Museum, Washington\u2019s Smithsonian Institution, and Oxford and Cambridge Universities) have returned Benin Bronzes in their possession to Nigeria, or at least pledged to do so.<\/p>\n

However, there are other organizations that have refused to do so. Among them is the British Museum, which holds the greatest number of Benin items. The museum dismissed calls made by Nigerian officials, stating that a restitution would be against a 1963 UK law. The act prohibits the permanent removal of items from the British Museum collection.<\/p>\n

Recently, African leaders have intensified their calls for Europeans to return cultural items taken during the era of colonialism. While some initiatives have been successful (for example, the restitution agreement between Zimbabwe and two British organizations), most stolen African artifacts are still subject of dispute between their current owners and African countries. These objects include the Great Star of Africa and the Smaller Star of Africa diamonds, the Ife Head, as well as the 1000-year-old Luzira terracotta head.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Angola<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Angola. Thousands of art objects were looted by British soldiers during an 1897 punitive expedition in the Kingdom of Benin, situated in what is now Nigeria. Later, 5,240 of the famous Benin Bronzes were transported to European and North American museums. The Digital Benin platform, launched on Wednesday, is the most complete digital […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":20099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[233,337,329],"class_list":["post-20100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-culture-and-art","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-angola","tag-angola"],"yoast_head":"\nInternational Team Creates Database of Benin Bronzes Stolen by Colonialists - Angola<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thousands of art objects were looted by British soldiers during an 1897 punitive expedition in the Kingdom of Benin, ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/international-team-creates-database-of-benin-bronzes-stolen-by-colonialists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"International Team Creates Database of Benin Bronzes Stolen by Colonialists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thousands of art objects were looted by British soldiers during an 1897 punitive expedition in the Kingdom of Benin, ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/international-team-creates-database-of-benin-bronzes-stolen-by-colonialists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Angola\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-11T09:37:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-11T09:57:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_6-636e1c7fe1093.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1079\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/international-team-creates-database-of-benin-bronzes-stolen-by-colonialists#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/international-team-creates-database-of-benin-bronzes-stolen-by-colonialists\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"International Team Creates Database of Benin Bronzes Stolen by Colonialists\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-11T09:37:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-11T09:57:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/international-team-creates-database-of-benin-bronzes-stolen-by-colonialists\"},\"wordCount\":415,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/international-team-creates-database-of-benin-bronzes-stolen-by-colonialists#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_6-636e1c7fe1093.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Angola\",\"Angola\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"culture and art\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/international-team-creates-database-of-benin-bronzes-stolen-by-colonialists#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/international-team-creates-database-of-benin-bronzes-stolen-by-colonialists\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/international-team-creates-database-of-benin-bronzes-stolen-by-colonialists\",\"name\":\"International Team Creates Database of Benin Bronzes Stolen by Colonialists - 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