benin bronzes

Art and cultural heritage lawyer and professor Leila Amineddoleh speaks about the law and ethics of recovering looted art in situations ranging from British conquest to the Nazis.

The Scene broadcasts on WRFI Community Radio. For more information, visit https://www.wrfi.org/wrfiprograms/the-scene/.

Contact Info: thesceneaudiomagazine@gmail.com

Original air date: August 26, 2022

Please visit the following to view the Benin Bronzes and to learn more about the Restitution Study Group.

Show Notes:

00:00 manillas used to trade for slaves as documented by Alan Ryder in Benin and the Europeans

02:50 mission and work of Restitution Study Group to fight for slavery justice

03:20 RSG’s focus on corporations, private estates and governments that were complicit in slavery

03:45 RSG’s suits against insurance companies for slavery policies

06:00 RSG’s suits against banks like J.P. Morgan Chase

0:630 RSG’s suits included consumer fraud and human rights arguments

07:30 DNA testing used by RSG 

08:30 DNA results and TransAtlantic Slave Trade Database used to trace ancestry

08:50 RSG’s action filed for genocide compensation efforts

09:35 the Proxmire Act, Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987

12:30 RSG’s suit against the Smithsonian Institution over the Benin Bronzes

14:40 1896 massacre of British soldiers 

15:30 Kingdom of Benin’s practice of sacrifice 

16:15 RSG’s demand for a share of the Benin Bronzes

17:20 RSG’s meeting with Kingdom of Benin’s princess 

19:20 Charleston, SC

19:30 Jamaica

21:00 The Benin Monarchy: An Anthology by Oba Ewuare II Foundation (2018) 

21:55 Paula Girshik

22:25 Harz Mountains

23:50 Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art's Ngaire Blankenberg  "confusion" on Kingdom of Benin's involvement in  slave trade 

24:45 per Dr. Paul Lovejoy, manillas were used in  slave traded and to make Benin Bronzes for 300 years

26:00 RSG’s allegations that Smithsonian is violating US law that requires consideration for transfer of the Bronzes outside the Smithsonian

28:00 Board of Regents vote on transfer of Benin Bronzes

30:30 11 October 2022 - Smithsonian’s scheduled transfer of Benin Bronzes 

31:30 Lack of media attention on this issue

31:50 Short film They Belong to All of Us

34:00 RSG’s suit against the Smithsonian is a restitution case

34:45 RSG’s efforts with institutions other than the Smithsonian

36:50 bronzes taken according to the laws of war

39:45 forensic research 

41:50 16th-19th Century Bronzes

42:15 Dan Hicks’ book The Brutish Museum

43:50 removing labels from the Bronzes

44:50 Oba Head gifted by Nigerian leader 

48:30 Benin City - hub of human trafficking 

51:20 African scholar Dr. Ibrahima Seck 

52:00 missing slave trade documentation for two main slave ports

54:00 one on one approach with American institutions

57:00 Petition submitted to UK’s Charities Commission

1:02:00 Smithsonian’s current holdings of Bronzes

1:04:00 RSG’s emergency motion

1:05:20 number of Bronzes in the U.S.

1:09:00 dual citizenship

1:11:00 Nigeria’s request for reparations 

1:11:50 definition of justice

1:14:00 opportunity for Nigeria to speak up

Please share your comments and/or questions at stephanie@warfareofartandlaw.com

To hear more episodes, please visit Warfare of Art and Law podcast's website.

Music by Toulme.

To view rewards for supporting the podcast, please visit Warfare's Patreon page.

To leave questions or comments about this or other episodes of the podcast and/or for information about joining the 2ND Saturday discussion on art, culture and justice, please message me at stephanie@warfareofartandlaw.com.

Thanks so much for listening!

© Stephanie Drawdy [2024]

Fingerprints Episode 6

The country’s first major art and antiquities collection now sits in the Ashmolean Museum. It reveals untold stories from the ancient world including shipwrecks, competitively collecting, underhand dealings and how classical art was used by aristocrats at the royal court to boost their status and standing. Join lecturer Alison Pollard, as she takes you on a journey which spans over 2000 years. Find a transcript of this episode here

Read more

• Read about the Arundel marbles here

Speakers in this episode:

• Series host: Lucie Dawkins, Director & Producer, Ashmolean Museum
• Dr Alison Pollard, Lecturer in Classical Archaeology, University of Oxford
• Professor Peter Stewart, Director of the Classical Art Research Centre, University of Oxford
• Jaś Elsner, Professor of Classics and Art History, University of Oxford
• Phiroze Vasunia, Professor of Greek, UCL

About the Fingerprints podcast

Every object in the Ashmolean has passed from hand to hand to reach the Museum. In a new podcast, we uncover the invisible fingerprints left behind by makers, looters, archaeologists, soldiers, rulers, curators, and many more. These stories of touch reveal the ways in which the forces of conflict and colonialism have shaped Britain’s oldest Museum. Join the Ashmolean’s curators alongside artists, experts, and community members, for our new podcast: Fingerprints.

Fingerprints will be released on the Ashmolean’s website, on Spotify, Apple, and wherever you get your podcasts, weekly from  21 January 2022 until 25 February 2022.

Fingerprints is produced and hosted by Lucie Dawkins. Guests include Bénédicte Savoy, co-author of the Report on African Cultural Heritage, commissioned by Emmanuel Macron; Professor Dan Hicks, of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum; and Simukai Chigudu, one of the founding members of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign.

www.ashmolean.org/fingerprints

• Read more about the fragment here or view an image here

• Series host: Lucie Dawkins, Director & Producer, Ashmolean Museum
• Dr Andrew Shapland, Curator of Bronze Age & Classical Greece
• Dr Lucia Patrizio Gunning, Modern Historian, UCL
• Dr Antonis Kotsonas, Associate Professor of Mediterranean History and Archaeology
• Dr Lisa Bendall, Associate Professor in Aegean Prehistory, University of Oxford
• Dr Athanasia Kanta, archaeologist
• With the voice of Jonathan Aris as Arthur Evans

About the Fingerprints podcast

Every object in the Ashmolean has passed from hand to hand to reach the Museum. In a new podcast, we uncover the invisible fingerprints left behind by makers, looters, archaeologists, soldiers, rulers, curators, and many more. These stories of touch reveal the ways in which the forces of conflict and colonialism have shaped Britain’s oldest Museum. Join the Ashmolean’s curators alongside artists, experts, and community members, for our new podcast: Fingerprints.

Fingerprints will be released on the Ashmolean’s website, on Spotify, Apple, and wherever you get your podcasts, weekly from  21 January 2022 until 25 February 2022.

Fingerprints is produced and hosted by Lucie Dawkins. Guests include Bénédicte Savoy, co-author of the Report on African Cultural Heritage, commissioned by Emmanuel Macron; Professor Dan Hicks, of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum; and Simukai Chigudu, one of the founding members of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign.

www.ashmolean.org/fingerprints

Fingerprints Episode 4

Curator Paul Collins takes us on a journey with a 3000 year old king uncovered by an Indian soldier digging a trench in World War I, and explore what he has to tell us about the formation of Iraq as a nation state. Find a transcript of this episode here

Read more

• Read more about the sculpture here or see an image here

Speakers in this episode:

• Series host: Lucie Dawkins, Director & Producer, Ashmolean Museum
• Dr Paul Collins, Curator of the Ancient Middle East, Ashmolean Museum
• Santanu Das, Professor of Modern Literature and Culture, University of Oxford
• Dr Mehiyar Kathem, Nahrein Network, UCL and Oxford, Researcher on cultural heritage in contemporary Iraq

About the Fingerprints podcast

Every object in the Ashmolean has passed from hand to hand to reach the Museum. In a new podcast, we uncover the invisible fingerprints left behind by makers, looters, archaeologists, soldiers, rulers, curators, and many more. These stories of touch reveal the ways in which the forces of conflict and colonialism have shaped Britain’s oldest Museum. Join the Ashmolean’s curators alongside artists, experts, and community members, for our new podcast: Fingerprints.

Fingerprints will be released on the Ashmolean’s website, on Spotify, Apple, and wherever you get your podcasts, weekly from  21 January 2022 until 25 February 2022.

Fingerprints is produced and hosted by Lucie Dawkins. Guests include Bénédicte Savoy, co-author of the Report on African Cultural Heritage, commissioned by Emmanuel Macron; Professor Dan Hicks, of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum; and Simukai Chigudu, one of the founding members of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign.

www.ashmolean.org/fingerprints

Fingerprints Episode 3

Mallica Kumbera Landrus, the Ashmolean’s Keeper of Eastern Art, takes us on a journey with 200 clay figures from India, displayed alongside a human zoo at the Colonial and India Exhibition of 1886, and later used to teach young British colonial officers at Oxford’s Indian Institute. Find a transcript of this episode here

Read more

• View images of some of the sculptures mentioned in the episode here
• Find out more about Ali Kazim’s exhibition at the Ashmolean here

Speakers in this episode:

• Series host: Lucie Dawkins, Director & Producer, Ashmolean Museum
• Professor Mallica Kumbera Landrus, Keeper of Eastern Art at the Ashmolean
• Ali Kazim, one of Pakistan’s leading contemporary artists whose work will be on show in the Ashmolean from 7 February 2022
• Dr Nayanika Mathur, Associate Professor in the Anthropology of South Asia, University of Oxford

About the Fingerprints podcast

Every object in the Ashmolean has passed from hand to hand to reach the Museum. In a new podcast, we uncover the invisible fingerprints left behind by makers, looters, archaeologists, soldiers, rulers, curators, and many more. These stories of touch reveal the ways in which the forces of conflict and colonialism have shaped Britain’s oldest Museum. Join the Ashmolean’s curators alongside artists, experts, and community members, for our new podcast: Fingerprints.

Fingerprints will be released on the Ashmolean’s website, on Spotify, Apple, and wherever you get your podcasts, weekly from  21 January 2022 until 25 February 2022.

Fingerprints is produced and hosted by Lucie Dawkins. Guests include Bénédicte Savoy, co-author of the Report on African Cultural Heritage, commissioned by Emmanuel Macron; Professor Dan Hicks, of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum; and Simukai Chigudu, one of the founding members of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign.

www.ashmolean.org/fingerprints

Fingerprints Episode 2

Dan Hicks takes us on a journey with three bronze masks from the West African city of Benin, through the hands of soldiers, collectors, and curators, and along with special guests considers the responsibility that European museums have towards looted art in their collections. Find a transcript of this episode here

Read more

• View the masks spoken about in the episode here
• Read the Pitt Rivers’ interim report on the provenance of African cultural heritage in their collection here 
• Find out more about the Benin Bronzes and the Benin Dialogue Group here
• Find out more about Oxford University’s procedures about the return of cultural objects here
• And find more about Dan Hicks' book, The Brutish Museums

Speakers in this episode:

• Series host: Lucie Dawkins, Director & Producer, Ashmolean Museum
• Xa Sturgis, Director of the Ashmolean Museum
• Simukai Chigudu, Professor of African Politics, University of Oxford and founding member of Rhodes Must Fall
• Dan Hicks, Professor of Contemporary Archaeology, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
• Victor Ehikhamenor, artist
• Adenike Cosgrove, collector and historian of African Art Historian
• Professor Bénédicte Savoy, art historian and co-author of the report, The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron

About the Fingerprints podcast

Every object in the Ashmolean has passed from hand to hand to reach the Museum. In a new podcast, we uncover the invisible fingerprints left behind by makers, looters, archaeologists, soldiers, rulers, curators, and many more. These stories of touch reveal the ways in which the forces of conflict and colonialism have shaped Britain’s oldest Museum. Join the Ashmolean’s curators alongside artists, experts, and community members, for our new podcast: Fingerprints.

Fingerprints will be released on the Ashmolean’s website, on Spotify, Apple, and wherever you get your podcasts, weekly from  21 January 2022 until 25 February 2022.

Fingerprints is produced and hosted by Lucie Dawkins. Guests include Bénédicte Savoy, co-author of the Report on African Cultural Heritage, commissioned by Emmanuel Macron; Professor Dan Hicks, of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum; and Simukai Chigudu, one of the founding members of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign.

www.ashmolean.org/fingerprints

Fingerprints Episode 1

Join the Ashmolean Museum’s director, Xa Sturgis, as he questions what a museum is for. He introduces us to Powhatan’s Mantle, one of the museum’s founding objects, and one inextricably linked with British colonial history. From there, he traces the Ashmolean’s story to the present day, as special guests explore how we can transform an uncomfortable past into a more positive future. Find a transcript of this episode here

Read more

• See Powhatan’s Mantle here
• Find out more about Oxford University’s procedures about the return of cultural objects here

Speakers in this episode:

• Series host: Lucie Dawkins, Director & Producer, Ashmolean Museum
• Xa Sturgis, Director of the Ashmolean Museum
• Sumaya Kassim, writer, curator and museum-sceptic
• Reyahn King, CEO of York Museums Trust
• Dr Laura van Broekhoven, Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
• Mustafa Barcho, Oxford-Middle East Community Ambassador, Ashmolean Museum
• Marenka Thompson-Odlum, Researcher, Pitt Rivers
• Nicola Bird, Community Engagement Officer, Oxford's Gardens, Libraries and Museums

About the Fingerprints podcast

Every object in the Ashmolean has passed from hand to hand to reach the Museum. In a new podcast, we uncover the invisible fingerprints left behind by makers, looters, archaeologists, soldiers, rulers, curators, and many more. These stories of touch reveal the ways in which the forces of conflict and colonialism have shaped Britain’s oldest Museum. Join the Ashmolean’s curators alongside artists, experts, and community members, for our new podcast: Fingerprints.

Fingerprints will be released on the Ashmolean’s website, on Spotify, Apple, and wherever you get your podcasts, weekly from  21 January 2022 until 25 February 2022.

Fingerprints is produced and hosted by Lucie Dawkins. Guests include Bénédicte Savoy, co-author of the Report on African Cultural Heritage, commissioned by Emmanuel Macron; Professor Dan Hicks, of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum; and Simukai Chigudu, one of the founding members of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign.

www.ashmolean.org/fingerprints

Every object in the Ashmolean has passed from hand to hand to reach the Museum. In a new podcast, we uncover the invisible fingerprints left behind by makers, looters, archaeologists, soldiers, rulers, curators, and many more. These stories of touch reveal the ways in which the forces of conflict and colonialism have shaped Britain’s oldest Museum. Join the Ashmolean’s curators alongside artists, experts, and community members, for our new podcast: Fingerprints.

Fingerprints will be released on the Ashmolean’s website, on Spotify, Apple, and wherever you get your podcasts, weekly from  21 January 2022 until 25 February 2022.

Fingerprints is produced and hosted by Lucie Dawkins. Guests include Bénédicte Savoy, co-author of the Report on African Cultural Heritage, commissioned by Emmanuel Macron; Professor Dan Hicks, of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum; and Simukai Chigudu, one of the founding members of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign.

--- Transcript for this trailer ---

Voice 1: Every object in the Ashmolean has passed from hand to hand to reach the Museum.

In a new podcast, we uncover the invisible fingerprints left behind by makers, looters, archaeologists, soldiers, rulers, curators, and many more.

These stories of touch reveal the ways in which the forces of conflict and colonialism have shaped Britain’s oldest Museum.

Join the Ashmolean’s curators alongside artists, experts, and community members, for our new podcast: Fingerprints.

Voice 2: It was magical to touch the impressions of someone’s hand, who may have made this piece thousands of years ago.

Voice 3: There’s a large gouge from the front of the statue of the pick that the Indian soldier had been using to dig his trench.

Voice 4: Those are signifiers and messages that are embedded, are hidden in them for each generation. So, their importance can never be underestimated even though they have been removed from where they were created.

Voice 5: It’s obvious that it’s the face of the human figure that has been scratched out.

Voice 6: One of the main attractions was the live display of 34 human beings who were transported from India.

Voice 7: So they’d suggests bribing a local Imam to say that the sculptures are against the tenets of Islam.

Voice 8: Although some of these stories can be uncomfortable they’re also vital. They’re stories which connect us to a vast global web of human experiences that allow the objects to speak to us in different ways and with different voices.

Voice 9: Because museums are very political places.

Voice 1: So, watch out for Fingerprints on the Ashmolean’s website, on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts, for weekly releases from the 21st of January.

The following are links for more information about the Institute of Art and Law and the LLM program.

To view available rewards for supporting the podcast, please visit Warfare's Patreon page.

Show Notes:

3:05 Alexander Herman discusses the Institute of Art and Law’s beginning in 1995

4:40 IAL founded by Norman Palmer and Ruth Redmond-Cooper 

5:15 IAL mission

7:15 Emily Gould discusses growth of art law

9:20 online courses 

10:05 Diploma in Art Profession Law and Ethics; next beginning online 5 June 2021

11:45 Diploma in Law and Collections Management 

12:15 Diploma in IP and Collections

13:25 Art as Security Seminar 

13:50 Restitution Dialogues

16:30 Blog 

16:50  Herman’s blog post on Copyright in America

18:10 Cariou v. Prince 

20:55 Marano v Metropolitan Museum of Art

23:00 Herman’s transformation of cover art from Supertramp’s 1979 album 

26:10  Gould's blog on Benin Bronzes

35:50 Museums and the Holocaust, Second Edition  

37:35  UK Holocaust Act

46:14 Topics covered in  Art Antiquity and Law Journal

51:05 Art, Business and Law LLM 

57:45 Conflicts and compliments of art and  law

1:00:45 NFTs

1:07:00 Smart contracts for NFTs

1:08:00 impact of art law and culture 

1:12:15 IAL speaks to justice by informing the public of the complexities within art law matters 

Please share your comments and/or questions at stephanie@warfareofartandlaw.com

To hear more episodes, please visit Warfare of Art and Law podcast's website.

Music by Toulme.

To view rewards for supporting the podcast, please visit Warfare's Patreon page.

To leave questions or comments about this or other episodes of the podcast and/or for information about joining the 2ND Saturday discussion on art, culture and justice, please message me at stephanie@warfareofartandlaw.com.

Thanks so much for listening!

© Stephanie Drawdy [2024]

What even is provenance? In our first Hansplaining episode, Hannah introduces the concept of provenance and through a list of 3-ish things articulates its relevance for both those within the field of museum studies and those outside of it.

 And thanks to a framework created by Daniel Tiger of all people (animals?), we discuss what it means to think about the way museums acquire objects, give you language to talk about the issue, and encourage everyone to construct a plan.

 The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage: Toward a New Relational Ethics (2018) by Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy

 The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution (2020) by Dan Hicks

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Over These Walls by Hope and Social is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.