Architect David Adjaye Has Been Tapped to Design a New Museum for Benin’s Looted Treasures

Renowned architect David Adjaye
is working on a new museum that could one day house treasures
looted from the African kingdom of Benin during the colonial era.
The British architect, who designed the Smithsonian’s critically
acclaimed National Museum of African American History and Culture,
has been commissioned to undertake a feasibility study for
the new Benin Royal Museum in
Nigeria.

A spokesperson for the architect tells artnet News that the Edo
state government has commissioned Adjaye Associates and its local partner in Nigeria,
Agram Architects, to undertake the feasibility study. Building a
new museum would be a major step in repatriating artifacts, such as
the Benin bronzes, which were looted by the British army in the
late 19th century and then sold to pay for the military campaign.
Many ended up in museums across Europe,
as well as in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The
lion’s share of the trove went to the British Museum in London.
Examples were recently acquired by the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Benin’s lost treasures are a subject close to the heart of
Adjaye, who was born in Tanzania to Ghanaian parents. Adjaye was
invited to contribute his ideas for the new museum at the latest
meeting of the Benin Dialogue Group, the
members of which include representatives from major museums in
Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Nigeria, and the UK, including
the British Museum.

Adjaye’s spokesperson stressed that the architect’s experience
and interest in Benin’s cultural heritage, both personally and
professionally, demonstrates his commitment to supporting the
group’s efforts “to ensure this history will have its place in
Nigeria’s present and future.”

The Benin Dialogue Group members have been discussing the
new museum since 2018. At its latest meeting, which was held in
Benin City in July, Adjaye outlined his vision. In a statement, the
group said that the museum would “reunite” the most significant of
Benin’s historical artifacts, currently housed in various
institutions around the world.

The group pledged to undertake provenance research into their
collections and share the results ahead of its next meeting at the
British Museum in 2020. However, the legal issue surrounding the
repatriation of pieces will probably mean they will be loaned
rather than permanently returned. Some critics accuse the group of
having a “colonial mindset” because of its stress on their
institutions’ legal ownership of the artifacts.

Loan or Return?

The multilateral discussions between mainly museum professionals
comes in contrast to the French approach to the issue of African
art looted in the colonial era that is held by the country’s
museums. President Emmanuel Macron has championed a top-down
approach to the issue of restitution, commissioning a report by the
art historians Felwine Sarr and
Bénédicte Savoy. They delivered their bombshell findings
last November, urging restitution where appropriate.

Within days, Macron had ordered the Musée Quai Branly–Jacques
Chirac in Paris and the French ministry of culture, to return 26
works requested by the the West African nation of Benin “without
delay.” (Benin was formerly the French colony of Dahomey.) The
restitution needs to be approved by the French senate, however, and
French museum chiefs, including Quai Branly’s directors, have
pushed back against the Sarr-Savoy report.

The artifacts, which include a throne looted by French troops,
are destined for Benin’s new museum in the city of Abomey, which is
due to be built with a €20 million loan from France and to
open in 2021.

Speaking last week in London at the Arts and Business
conference, Tristram Hunt, who is the director of the Victoria and
Albert Museum, speculated that France may help build museums in
Africa that have a similar status to their embassies on the
continent, sidestepping any legal issues surrounding restitution.
Hunt praised the Sarr-Savoy report but stressed that the trustees
were prevented by law from deaccessioning items. However, he
confirmed that the Victoria and Albert Museum is “deep in
discussion” with Ethiopia about the museum’s preferred option to
lend treasures looted by
the British after the Battle of Maqdala in 1868 to Addis
Ababa.

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