For the first time since their violent translocation, the Digital Benin platform shows the objects in one unique space accompanied by information that in certain cases had only partially been available to the public.
The desideratum as well as diverse attempts to establish an overview of the dispersed royal treasure of Benin has existed for a long time, and has been present in academic circles (Dark, 1982 ) and activist demands since the 1970s and 1980s. After Nigeria’s independence, calls for the return, loan and/or restitution of the objects looted in Benin were often accompanied by requests for museums to supply listings of their holdings (see Bodenstein, 2022 Savoy, 2021).
Recent developments in online museum catalogues has made it possible to access information on individual institutional holdings in certain cases. However, this access remains difficult for several reasons: first, the objects were part of general catalogues, requiring prior knowledge of object locations, and additionally, such catalogues are in different languages, many different search queries could be required to get a full list and museums often do not publish object information online.
For the first time since their violent translocation, the Digital Benin platform shows the objects in one unique space accompanied by information that in certain cases had only partially been available to the public.
United Kingdom
944
Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Germany
518
United States
393
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge
United Kingdom
350
Nigeria
285
Staatliche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsen und Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Germany
283
Austria
202
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum)
United States
188
MARKK Museum am Rothenbaum Kulturen und Künste der Welt
Germany
179
United States
154
United Kingdom
148
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