Stolen Works of Art
Omolola I Ogunyemi
There's something that has been bothering me now for quite a while. When
I was in high school in Nigeria, I learned in art class about the great works
produced by the Bini, Tiv, Yoruba and other groups. The quality and
craftmanship of these sculptures, etc. were so striking that the British
scoffed at the idea that they could have been produced by black Africans and
took them away for "safekeeping" (as if they had not been kept in excellent
condition for 100s of years by the different groups). Since then, people have
been anmazingly silent about this issue. It seems sad to me that African
children will go to school and learn about these works but never get to see
them. The Igbo-Ukwu bronzes, Nok Terracota heads and many Ife and Bini
sculptures are on display in museums in the U.S., England (mainly), and some
other European countries, but no one talks about the fact that they were
basically stolen. It seems so strange to me that countries which have
contributed and are still contributing to the vilification of African culture
(through movies and the media) would cling so tenaciously to our works of
art. Does anyone think we can get them back?
LOLA OGUNYEMI
e-mail: oi...@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
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Ogden's Law:
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> There's something that has been bothering me now for quite a while. When
>I was in high school in Nigeria, I learned in art class about the great works
>produced by the Bini, Tiv, Yoruba and other groups. The quality and
>craftmanship of these sculptures, etc. were so striking that the British
>scoffed at the idea that they could have been produced by black Africans and
>took them away for "safekeeping" (as if they had not been kept in excellent
>condition for 100s of years by the different groups). Since then, people have
>been anmazingly silent about this issue. It seems sad to me that African
>children will go to school and learn about these works but never get to see
>them. The Igbo-Ukwu bronzes, Nok Terracota heads and many Ife and Bini
>sculptures are on display in museums in the U.S., England (mainly), and some
>other European countries, but no one talks about the fact that they were
>basically stolen. It seems so strange to me that countries which have
>contributed and are still contributing to the vilification of African culture
>(through movies and the media) would cling so tenaciously to our works of
>art. Does anyone think we can get them back?
!Im sure that many works of art out of all of Africa had been stolen.
!When they refer to grave robbers who do they refer to? Because their
!the ones who are messing around with the graves, how did so much of the
!African works of art get into the musuems and in major universities?