Fwd: REPLY: Benin Ivory Mask
kenneth harrow
the report on this sale of the bein ivory mask is particularly dispiriting. we all know of the provenance of benin sculptures following the 1897 punitive expedition.
now one of those pieces held by the galway family, descendants of one of the original military officers who stole the sculptures, has the effrontery to sell it.
here is the sahara reporters account, detailing the situation and asking us to sign a petition complaining about the sale.
Urgent Appeal To Stop Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Lionel Galway From Selling Stolen Benin Mask For £5 Million In London
Please sign the petition attached to stop the sale of a 16th century ivory mask stolen from Benin, (currently in Edo state, Nigeria) by Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Lionel Galway . The Benin ivory mask is about to be auctioned for £5 Million at the Sotheby's in London.
Petition link http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/benin_mask/
STOLEN OUT OF AFRICA: A 16th century ivory mask looted by
the British during an invasion of Benin in West Africa
(Nigeria) in 1897 is set to go for £ 5 Million at auction
at Sotheby's ( Phone :+44 (0) 20 7293 5000) in London . It
was kept by the family of British commissioner Lt Col
Henry Galway and recently resurfaced
Urgent Appeal: Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Lionel Galway was a British commissioner in colonial Nigeria. During the invasion he stole a 16th century Ivory mask from Benin City. His family is now putting the stolen Ivory for sale for £5 Million at Sotheby’s in London. We urgently require a UK based Nigerian lawyer to get injunction against the sale. Please e mail odami...@yahoo.com or BB 21659292 . For several Years the British claimed they do not know about the mask only for the mask to resurface in the family home of Henry Galway and rather than get the mask back they are putting it for sale.
Kayode Ogundamisi
The Thief Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Lionel Galway
The 'Gallwey Treaty', although it was never signed,
became the legal basis for British invasion, occupation,
and looting, culminating in the savage Benin Expedition of
1897, which destroyed the Kingdom of Benin. Galway was
often mentioned in dispatches during this time, and was
rewarded with the Distinguished Service Order (1896),
appointment as Companion of the Order of St Michael and St
George (1899) and promotion to major (1897).
Wikipedia
URGENT ACTION PHONE THE VENUE OF THE SALE ASKING THEM NOT
TO SELL THE STOLEN MASK
SOTHEBY'S LONDON
Telephone and ask to be passed on to the African Arts Department.
Phone service available Monday to Friday, 8.30 am – 11 pm GMT (3.30 am – 6 pm EST)Phone service available Monday to Friday, 8.30 am – 11 pm GMT (3.30 am – 6 pm EST) andSaturday 2.00 pm – 11 pm GMT (9.00 am – 6 pm EST).
From the UK:+44 (0) 20 7293 5000
From the US:+1 212 606 7000
Fax (from all locations)+44 (0) 20 7293 6555
By MailSotheby's1334 York AvenueNew York, NY 10021
AS ADVERTISED BY THE GALLERY
Ivory pendant mask, Edo people, Kingdom of Benin,
Nigeria. Estimate: £3,500,000-4,500,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
LONDON.- On 17th February 2011, Sotheby’s will sell a
rare, newly re-discovered, 16th century ivory pendant mask
depicting the head of the Queen mother from the Edo
peoples, Kingdom of Benin in Nigeria along with five other
rare works from Benin collected at the same time.
Only four other historical ivory pendant masks with related iconography of this age and quality are known – all of which are housed in major museums around the world1. All of the ivory masks are widely recognized for the quality of their craftsmanship, for the enormous scale of Benin’s artistic achievement and for their importance in the field of African art. Produced for the Oba (or King) of Benin, these ivory pendant masks are testament to the Kingdom of Benin’s golden age when the kingdom flourished economically, politically and artistically.
The masks rank among the most iconic works of art to have been created in Africa. The mask to be sold at Sotheby’s in February is estimated at £3.5-4.5* million. It had been on public view in 1947 as part of a loan exhibition at the Berkeley Galleries in London entitled ‘Ancient Benin’, and then again in 1951 in ‘Traditional Sculpture from the Colonies’ at the Arts Gallery of the Imperial Institute in London.
The mask and the five other Benin objects will be sold by the descendants of Lieutenant Colonel Sir Henry Lionel Gallwey (in 1913 he changed his name to Galway) who was appointed deputy commissioner and vice-consul in the newly established Oil Rivers Protectorate (later the Niger Coast Protectorate) in 1891. He remained in Nigeria until 1902 and participated in the British Government’s “Punitive Expedition” of 1897 against Benin City. The faces of the five known pendant masks have been interpreted widely by scholars of Benin art as that of Idia, the first Queen Mother of Benin.
The mother of the Oba Esigie (c. 1504 – 1550), Idia was granted the title of Iyoba (Queen Mother) by Esigie in recognition of her help and counsel during his military campaigns. Idia remains a celebrated figure in Benin, known as the ‘only woman who went to war’. The masks were created at least in part as objects of veneration. The worn and honey-coloured surface of the offered mask attests to years of rubbing with palm oil, and surface as well as the style of carving is most similar to the example in The Seattle Art Museum.
The mask comes to auction together with: a highly important carved tusk made with a group of other similarly carved tusks for the altar of an Oba who lived in the 18th century. The imagery presented depicts emblems of power and strength which are related to the life of the Oba himself. The iconography is specific, and can be seen repeated across many arts forms in Benin, including the well-documented bronze plaques. The collection also includes two richly carved ivory armlets which incorporate many of the panoply of motifs used by the artists of the Igbesanmwan, the Royal Guild of ivory carvers.
As with most ivory carvings, these were more than likely made for an Oba, as he would have had complete control over the production of works of art made from precious ivory. Also in the collection is a rare bronze armlet, cast with Portuguese figures in an openwork motif. The earliest appearance of the Portuguese in plaques and free-standing figures and bracelets in the 16th and 17th century was undoubtedly calculated by the Benin to add considerable prestige to the Oba and his courts demonstrating that his power extended beyond the confines of his own people.
Finally, the collection includes a very rare bronze sculpture of a type historically identified as tusk stands. The twisted and hollowed form of this stand suggests it served the same function as the more familiar bronze commemorative heads, as a stand for a carved ivory tusk on an altar created to honour a former ruler.
*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium
-------- Original Message --------
| Subject: | REPLY: Benin Ivory Mask |
|---|---|
| Date: | Thu, 23 Dec 2010 12:43:18 -0500 |
| From: | Joyce Youmans <you...@MAIL.H-NET.MSU.EDU> |
| Reply-To: | H-NET List for African History and Culture <H-AF...@H-NET.MSU.EDU> |
| To: | H-AF...@H-NET.MSU.EDU |
___________ Date: Wed, December 22, 2010 2:34 pm X-posted from H-West-Africa <h-west...@h-net.msu.edu> From: "Charles Becker" <becker...@orange.sn> ___________ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:27:01 -0600 X-Posted from H-NET List for African Expressive Culture <H-AF...@H-NET.MSU.EDU> From: Michael Conner <MWCO...@COMCAST.NET> ___________ From: Pido <pi...@africaonline.co.ke> Subject: REPLY: Benin Ivory Mask Date: December 22, 2010 Check the upper part of the mask. Are those Portuguese soldiers? Braided hair? Something else? Is this actually the mask described in your email? Cheers, Donna Pido ******************* From: Jean Borgatti <jbor...@gmail.com> H-AfrArts Review Editor Date: December 22, 2010 There are several known ivory masks from this period in museum collections - one in the British Museum, one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, and one in the Katherine White Collection at the Seattle Art Museum. Apparently this is a fourth mask that has been in the family of Lt. Col. Henry Galway since 1897. See: http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/urgent-appeal-stop-lieutenant-colonel-henry-lionel-galway-selling-stolen-benin-mask-%C2%A35-mil for a reference to Galway and his role in Benin -- though I have not checked in the information here and cannot verify it.
Biko Agozino
| This review of mine might interest some of the readers on this group: http://www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/vol-8_1/v8-1-agozino.html Biko |
kenneth harrow
derrida was one of the great minds of our times, and thanks to biko for capturing so much of his importance
ken
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-- kenneth w. harrow distinguished professor of english michigan state university department of english east lansing, mi 48824-1036 ph. 517 803 8839 har...@msu.edu
xok...@yahoo.com
- Kenn Harrow
Kenn,
So some oyinbo person wants to sell his loot and we are about to crap in our pants? Who cares? Na wa O! Is THAT the only thing they stole? Why are we now wetting our pants over ONE art piece? A pox on all their houses. I am a descendant of the Benin empire. I don't know of any Nigerian that is not upset that these artifacts were looted and moved abroad. Having said that, it is my fervent prayer that those beautiful pieces stay away from Nigeria for now. I will personally stone whomever has the temerity to return the pieces. In fact enh, if I was the artwork I would kick against being returned to the "museums" of Nigeria. I would even beg for political asylum. Why would I substitute a life of lush living behind climate-controlled glass, oogled by nice people who know art, for a life of guaranteed misery on some God-forsaken "museum" in Nigeria? The art pieces will lie somewhere dirty at the mercy of filth, dust, neglect, corruption, etc. The curator would steal millions of dollars allocated for their annual upkeep and who knows, one drunken night, the "head of state" du jour might give them to his Indian mistress as a gift, after 1 minute of sex. The artifacts will come back home but not yet. I am not even sure to where self, the old Benin Kingdom is no more. Who will accept the art on the kingdom's behalf?
If you want to know what happens in museums in Nigeria, read Teju Cole's Everyday for the Thief. You will cry. Do you know what happened to the zoo at UI? If you find out let me know. Someone started a rumor the other day, that the zoo workers ate most of the animals when they were not paid...
If you read Wole Soyinka's book You Must Set Forth at Dawn, there is a passage there that descends into hilarious farce. He sets out to Europe or Brazil or somewhere to rescue the original ori olokun. He concocts some nonsense espionage bullsh*t and comes away, well almost - with a plastic copy of the ori olokun! LOL! Ask him for me, where was he going to put it? Hopefully in his house away from termites with steel jaws.
Are these busybody petitioners just now noticing that the piece has been missing? Which one concern them inside? The courts should ask them which part of the art work belongs to them. Shebi it is only 3 million pounds that they are crying about. Ibori used to steal that every day. Every day. And you, Kenn have been silent about that, well you will say oh yes white folks steal also! This group of powerful intellectuals could start a letter writing campaign to protest the fact that fully a quarter of our budget goes to supporting the legislative branch (or something similarly outrageous). I will sign that petition. Kenn how many of you have signed a petition against the wanton abuse and murder of the "witch children" of Nigeria? That I will sign.
Kenn, I have an idea. Let us start a petition against the West. Dear West, do not allow any penny to leave Nigeria (use Nigeria as a test pilot). That is, they may steal but they must spend the money on and in Nigeria. Do not permit any of our bastard leaders to go abroad for "medical attention!" Now you are talking. I will sign that one. To hell with the mask. Keep it in Europe. Have a great life, mask. Those of us stuck in Africa envy you your life!
- Ikhide
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Abayomi Akinyeye
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: REPLY: Benin Ivory Mask
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Biko Agozino
Bro Ken,
|
kenneth harrow
this all sounds exciting, but a little beyond my strengths. my first thought is, of course, lenin on imperialism as the extension of marxist thought to africa that you are seeking. i think marx's view of advanced societies was grounded in progressivist notions of history that remains a variant of hegel, and that i have a hard time swallowing. but the side of marx that sees political commitment in the proletariat, and more broadly in the working classes, ultimately the exploited classes, resonates with a marxist reading of africa as the object of capitalist exploitation for labor and resources in the 19th century. but i would hate to look too closely into marx's views on race for fear of what i'd find
lastly, the debate over the extent to which the growth of western industrial societies depended on african slave labor still continues, i believe (but again i know nothing about it). rodney and company versus who?
ken
Biko Agozino
| Right again Ken, Lenin was spot on in his analysis of imperialism as the highest stage of (finance) capitalism, compared to the old school colonialism of occupation. Nkrumah extended that analysis to neo-colonialism as the highest stage of imperialism and Patrick Wilmot extended it to apartheid as the highest stage of neo-colonialism. I wonder why you are reluctant to read Marx on the critique of racism because Capital is full of such a critique and concluded with that formulation in volume one where he critiqued a certain theory of modern colonialism by stating: 'A Negro is a Negro. Only under certain circumstances does he become a slave'. Fanon was probably responding to that with the quip: 'The Negro is not any more than the White man is'. What? Well, the negro is not black and the white man is not white when you come to think of it although Fanon was probably pointing out the social construction of identities that white supremacy assumed to be genetically determined. Yes, Marx used the N word once in Vol. I and used Kaffir once too but this could be read in the context of the hundreds of frequent use of negro, African and slave to suggest that he was calling out the racism of the pro-slavery capitalists. For those who are afraid of seeing ghosts of racism in Marx, let me recommend the classic essay by Stuart Hall, 'Race and Class Articulation in Societies Structured in Dominance' which was published in 1980 by UNESCO. When I was researching my doctoral dissertation on Black Women and the Criminal Justice System, I bumped into Hall on the streets of London and he invited me to his home, gave me a copy of the UNESCO book and told me to read his chapter. I did and it cleared my thoughts ever after. Of course, the theory of articulation of social relations was based on an interpretation of Capital Vol 1 as applied to the economy of apartheid South Africa by Harold Wolpe. Hall borrowed this creative reading and applied it to social relations based on a long quotation from Capital on race as a social structural factor that is not chosen by social agents as they make history under conditions that they did not choose. A feminist reading of Vol. 1 will also show how the oppression of women and children were represented as practices modeled on the enslavement of Africans which could not abate until slavery was crushed. On class, the struggle for a 40 hour week was not won until slavery was abolished! In critical race theory, this is now popularised as race-class-gender intersectionality but the road intersection or modern maths circle intersection metaphors are not as dynamic as the concept of articulation in capturing the fact that social relations are not only articulated, they are also constantly disarticulated and rearticulated under varying circumstances, according to Hall. Rodney versus who? Versus the proprietors of Marx and Sons Ltd who carry on as if Marx inherited nothing from Africa and see his body of work as a European private inheritance, according to Derrida. However, even people of African descent have repudiated this African inheritance of Marx for fear of being called Marxists even though Marx himself was fond of protesting; 'All I know is that I am not a Marxist', a protest against a militaristic misinterpretation of his theory: So you want to make a revolution? Well form a political party (not a guerrilla army), said Marx; Lenin agreed that what was to be done was to establish a newspaper to serve as the organ of the party (not to form suicide squads); and Gramsci concurred that the only way to win the support of other oppressed groups for a workers' revolution was through intellectual and moral leadership (not by force). Surprisingly, Engels highlighted this fact in his preface to the 1887 first English Edition of Vol 1 where he concluded his preface by stating that the major conclusion of Marx was that England was the place where a non-violent socialist revolution was most likely. Aha! There you have it, the African philosophy of non-violence is not alien to Marx. But today, some petty bourgeois intellectuals go about in parts of Africa calling for a violent revolution, forcing the Marxist analyst, Edwin Madunagu to offer the clarification that violence is neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for a revolution; it all depends on whether the privileged would launch what Marx identified as a pro-slavery rebellion when the oppressed break their chains as was the case during the American Civil War in which prominent comrades of Marx fought on the side of the Union Army while Marx mobilised workers in England to oppose the call for Britain to intervene on the side of the Confederacy (See Phillip S. Foner, American Socialism and Black Americans, from Civil War to World War II)! To conclude, I am encouraged to embark on this work of excavation given the injunction of Cheikh Anta Diop that we should not be in a haste to reject as foreign, many theoretical, scientific and technological claims of the West (not just because we embrace German and Japanese cars without qualms but) because when we look closely, we will find that Africa as the origin of civilization, laid the foundations for many such supposedly alien concepts, theories or innovations that are indeed often stolen or lost legacies of Africa. Biko |