pdf info for igbo-ukwu bronze pendant in british museum

The art from its royal palace and civilian homes was looted during a 10-day massacre described in the British National Archives as a “punitive expedition”-a punishment for the Benin king’s men killing seven British officials demanding control of regional trade.

After Benin’s fall, the British donned blackface and faux native dress to celebrate. 18, soldiers had burned Benin City to the ground. Archaeologists describe Benin City’s earthworks as the world’s largest built before the mechanical age, and its city walls were estimated to have been “four times longer than the Great Wall of China.” But the next day, the British military entered the city to overthrow Benin’s king by force. 9, 1897, the ancient Kingdom of Benin, now part of modern-day Nigeria, stood as a marker for the achievement of Black civilizations. © Trustees of the British Museum Gerard Julien/AFP via Getty Images Metropolitan Museum of Art Royal Museum for Central Africa Philippe Wojazer/Reuters © Trustees of the British Museum

Hundreds of thousands of historical artworks from Africa remain outside the continent, including (clockwise from top left): an Oduduwa helmet mask made of bronze from Benin City in Nigeria, housed at the British Museum in London the “Royal Seat of the Kingdom of Dahomey” from Benin Republic, at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris an ivory receptacle with figurative relief and stopper from the Loango coast, part of modern-day Republic of Congo, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York a Central African power figure from the coast of Congo and Angola, now at the Met a Mbangu mask from southern Bandundu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, housed at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium a head of a royal ancestor from the former Benin Kingdom, a part of modern-day Nigeria, displayed at the Quai Branly and a carved ivory pendant mask of Queen Idia, inlaid with iron and bronze, from Benin Kingdom, now at the British Museum.

Pdf info for igbo-ukwu bronze pendant in british museum