The Benin Bronzes in Western Art and the Market

September 21, 2026

By Sophia Molina with assistance from Eleanna Antonatou and the Center for Art Law Team

African material culture has undergone various phases of meaning and purpose in the Western world. Initially regarded as colonial trophies, then as ethnographic curiosities, and later as sources of aesthetic inspiration for the avant-garde. ^{These objects are now at the center of decolonial discourse, as communities and institutions contend with a racist and violent past while trying to figure out best practices for cultural repatriation. Benin bronzes, especially, have borne the brunt of debate regarding the overflow of objects plundered not only from Africa, but from most of the Global South, that ought to be returned to their original owners.}

But why the Benin Bronzes? Originating in Benin City, now Nigeria, these artworks are not the only prominent African pieces held in Western museums. However, Benin Bronzes are accompanied by a history that makes their case for repatriation particularly compelling: a documented violent looting, ^{significant cultural importance, clear ownership, extensive global dispersal, and sustained advocacy from Nigerian government officials, historians, and the like. Understanding why the Benin Bronzes have become a focal point in the ongoing fight for repatriation requires looking beyond the 1897 British attack on Benin City to the ways these artworks were interpreted and integrated within Western artistic practices during the 20th and 21st centuries.}

Colonial Trophies to Modern Art

A fetishization of African art famously influenced prominent artistic figures and their burgeoning styles during the early 20th century. It is well documented, for example, that Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse were drawn to the bold, geometric forms of African pieces that were circulating Parisian markets. ^{Both artists amassed private collections of African art, with Picasso owning more than one hundred pieces by the end of his life.}

As for artists known to have owned Benin bronzes, one from the first half of the 20th century stands out: Jacob Epstein (1880–1959). Jacob Epstein, an American-born artist who later moved to Europe and became a British citizen, was a leading sculptor in the avant-garde movement. ^{A visit to Picasso’s studio in Paris during the early 1910s inspired Epstein to draw from non-Western art forms as well as start a collection of his own. Epstein was a frequent customer of Paul Guillaume, a French art dealer who is credited with helping to disseminate African art to modernists during the early 20th century. Over the course of his life, Epstein accumulated a significant collection of African and Oceanic art which noticeably influenced his approach to abstraction and form. In an article published in the Arts and Cultures Magazine of the Barbier-Mueller Museum in 2020, author Charlie Godin draws parallels between several of Epstein’s African pieces and his own sculptures. For example, a piece titled Cursed Be the Day Wherein I Was Born (1913-1914) resembles an item in Epstein’s collection: a Nio byeri reliquary head from Gabon. Later on in his career, Epstein’s work was featured in a 1935 exhibition titled “Negro Art” alongside two of his bronze plaques that had been stolen during the 1897 punitive expedition in Benin, indicating a direct link between Epstein’s pieces and the bronzes that inspired so many European Modernists at the time.}

Like many of his contemporaries, Epstein’s appreciation for African art was shaped by the popular perspective of what was known as primitive art or art nègre, which often only highlighted the aesthetic quality of pieces and failed to acknowledge the people who made them or how they were procured. ^{Accordingly, it is unclear where Epstein purchased his four documented Benin Bronzes, as their provenance is not well documented. After Epstein died in 1959, Kathleen, Epstein’s wife, sold two pieces to the British Museum in 1962, where they both still reside in the “Africa, Oceania and the Americas” collection.,Another was passed down through various dealers and is presently owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and on display in their Gallery 342.}

If Epstein represents a somewhat typical early 20th-century adoption of African Art, British-Guyanese artist Hew Locke (b. 1959) represents a contemporary generation of artists who employ symbols such as the Benin Bronzes to unpack a broader language of colonial power and interrogate colonial histories. ^{For example, in The Procession (2022), a piece commissioned by the Tate Modern, Locke assembled more than 140 human-sized sculptural figures carrying an eclectic array of objects associated with global power structures and colonialism. As the title of the piece indicates, the figures were positioned as if part of a theatrical procession within the Tate’s neoclassical central gallery.}

Locke described his work as a “massive poem” focused more on the vibrancy of the event rather than the evocative symbols adorning the masquerading figures. ^{Such symbols included photographs of Benin bronzes printed onto the processionists’ clothing. Rather than offering a definitive interpretation of the Benin bronzes and their historical significance, Locke’s procession embraces ambiguity, prompting audiences to ask questions or draw their own conclusions. The incorporation of images of the Benin bronzes in his work reflects a broader shift in which dispersed, and now deemed looted, objects are not merely admired for their aesthetic beauty, but also used as vehicles for critical reflection on the legacy of colonialism and the art market that facilitated their circulation during the 20th century.}

From £25 to £10 Million

While the displacement of the Benin Bronzes and the institutions that have long opposed their restitution are thoroughly documented, far less is known about the intermediaries who facilitated their circulation and the circumstances under which they changed hands. Recent restitution announcements have renewed interest in these objects’ provenance, spurring public discourse and efforts to reconstruct their histories.

Repatriation efforts from institutions including the Smithsonian and the Museum of Fine Arts have brought attention to figures such as John J. Klejman and William Downing Webster, two art dealers who were instrumental in the proliferation of looted objects across the United States and Europe.^{, In fact, Klejman acquired one of Jacob Epstein’s bronzes (the one on view at the MET) before selling it to Alice K. Bache, another Benin Bronze collector. However, the circulation of the Benin Bronzes was not always as straightforward a sale as A to B. Instead, an ecosystem of dealers, collectors, auction houses, and public institutions enabled and promoted the industry, as interests became progressively intertwined. This is evident when working relationships in the sector, like the one between art dealer K. John Hewett and Sotheby’s chairman Peter Wilson, are considered.}

The growth of this elite network is particularly visible in the auction market, which delineates how Benin Bronzes became highly coveted over the course of the twentieth century. According to the 1898–1901 catalogues of London dealer W.D. Webster, early Benin heads were valued at just £25–£35. ^{By 1953, however, the highest recorded auction price for a Benin object had risen to £780, a record Sotheby’s surpassed when it sold a Benin head for £5,500. The shift in demand and valuation for Benin Bronzes did not go unnoticed, as leading auction houses increasingly catered to this growing market towards the end of the century.}

The resale history of one Benin head illustrates just how dramatically the market for these objects changed over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In 1951, before the Benin Bronzes’ prices had soared, London dealer William Ohly bought a Benin head from Glendining & Co for £230. ^{Shortly after, Ohly’s son, Ernest, hid the piece in a Barclays safe box for decades. The head was reportedly kept as collateral to be sold in the event of another Holocaust. In 2016, Barclays closed its Park Lane branch, and Ohly’s descendant was required to retrieve the object, which she decided to sell. The head was eventually purchased by an anonymous buyer through dealer Lance Entwistle for £10 million.}

Private Collections to Public Museums

Commercial sales were only one pathway through which Benin objects entered public collections. The fate of collectors’ estates after their owners’ deaths offers another possibility for how these objects moved from private hands into museums. After a collector’s death, artworks were often donated, lent, or sold to museums. For example, following the death of pharmaceutical entrepreneur and prolific collector Sir Henry Wellcome (1853-1936), the eponymous Trust distributed his collection through sales, repatriations, loans, and gifts to other institutions. ^{This process lasted from the 1940s throughout the following decade and is referred to by the Wellcome archives as “the Ten Distributions.” Portions of Wellcome’s Benin Bronzes went to the Liverpool World Museum in 1949, the British Museum in 1954, and UCLA’s Fowler Museum in 1965.}

The British Museum, which holds one of the most significant collections of Benin bronzes in the world and cites legal barriers to return, chiefly the 1963 British Museum Act, was once, not surprisingly, on the other side of the market. Conflicting as it may seem to their position today, in 1950, curator Hermann Braunholtz reported to the trustees that of the 203 plaques the museum had acquired, approximately thirty plaques were duplicate specimens, and therefore surplus to the Museum’s requirements. ^{Accordingly, the Museum began deaccessioning the plaques, selling thirteen directly to Nigeria in 1951, while others were sold to London dealer Sydney Burney and New York dealer John J. Klejman around the same time. , The British Museum deaccessioned pieces as late as 1972.}

Irrespective of moral arguments, both domestic and international legal frameworks fail to provide a clear path forward for the process of repatriating objects, including the Benin Bronzes. As Alec Lesseliers argues in his article published by the Center for Art Law, international conventions governing the restitution of cultural property are not retroactive. ^{In other words, objects looted before the conventions are not protected after their implementation. At the same time, British domestic law restricts the British Museum’s ability to deaccession objects from its collection. Consequently, the repatriation of the Benin Bronzes remains dependent largely on the goodwill and the willingness of individual institutions and states to act beyond existing legal obligations.}

Conclusion

Throughout the early 20th century, the Benin Bronzes’ aesthetic appeal bolstered their commercial value. As they circulated through the Western art market, their prices escalated, while their origins remained largely overlooked. Over time, however, the violent history of their displacement became increasingly difficult for institutions to ignore, particularly those that had (and perhaps still do) steadfastly justified their ownership of the objects. Benin Bronzes have since become the “most blatant examples of colonial looting that exist,” as articulated by Alex Marshall, a reporter at the New York Times.

While some details about provenance are merely resurfacing, others are actively being uncovered. For example, it was not until 2022 that the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History began conducting provenance research for the twenty Benin Bronzes in the museum’s collection. ^{Similarly, the Benin Initiative Switzerland (BIS) was spearheaded by the Museum Rietberg in Zurich in 2021. Since then, the museum has announced plans to transfer ownership of 11 objects in its collection to Nigeria. Furthermore, initiatives like Digital Benin have been foundational in consolidating provenance records, oral histories, cultural heritage resources, and archival materials into a comprehensive and accessible digital archive.}

About the Authors

Sophia Molina (Center for Art Law Summer 2026 Intern) graduated from Wesleyan University in 2026, where she studied History and Fine Art. Her academic and professional work focuses on the intersections of art and politics, with particular interests in provenance research, cultural heritage preservation, and cultural diplomacy.

Eleanna Antonatou (Center for Art Law Summer 2026 Legal Intern) is an LLM candidate in Art, Business and Law at Queen Mary University of London and a Law LLB graduate from the University of Nottingham. Her experience spans vacation schemes at international law firms across London, Athens, and Geneva. Her interests centre on intellectual property, dispute resolution, and the regulation of cross-border art transactions.

Suggested Readings

1. Alec Lesseliers, Repatriation of the Benin Bronzes: An Ethical and Legal Discussion?, Center for Art Law, June 19, 2023. This article examines the legal status of the Benin Bronzes from both international and domestic perspectives. Read more here.
2. Alex Marshall, These Looted Treasures Are Home. What Now? The New York Times, Dec. 9, 2025. Read more here about the complications facing Benin Bronze repatriation efforts.
3. Explore Digital Benin: A digital research platform bringing together information on more than 5,300 historical Benin objects across 139 institutions in 21 countries.

Select References

1. Martin Bailey, Benin Bronze, Sold off by British Museum in 1950, Returns to Market, The Art Newspaper, Oct. 27, 2016, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2016/10/28/benin-bronze-sold-off-by-british-museum-in-1950-returns-to-market.
2. Katrin Bennhold, African Treasures Return Home, The New York Times, Dec. 11, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/world/africa-art-nigeria-bulgaria-venezuela.html.
3. Callie Cherry & Elizabeth Campbell, Update on the Benin Bronzes: Research and Repatriation, (Sept. 29, 2021), https://liberalarts.du.edu/art-collection-ethics/news-events/all-articles/update-benin-bronzes-research-and-repatriation.
4. Richard Cork, How Jacob Epstein’s Early Works Revolutionised British Sculpture, Art UK (Mar. 4, 2021), https://artuk.org/discover/stories/how-jacob-epsteins-early-works-revolutionised-british-sculpture.
5. Hicks Dan, The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution (1 ed. 2020), https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv18msmcr.
6. Karen Frascona, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Returns Two Works of Art to the Oba of Benin (2025), https://www.mfa.org/press-release/mfa-boston-returns-two-works-of-art-to-oba-of-benin.
7. Elizabeth Fullerton, Bright Colors, Dark Subjects: Hew Locke’s Unsettling Pageant, The New York Times, Apr. 1, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/01/arts/design/hew-locke-the-procession-tate-britain.html.
8. Charlie Godin, Sir Jacob Epstein, “Primitive Mercenary in the Modern World,” Arts & Cultures 233 (2019).
9. Kenneth Griffin, The Early Egyptian and Sudanese Collections of Sir Henry Wellcome, 58 African Arts, Mar. 2025, at 44.
10. Alec Lesseliers, Repatriation of the Benin Bronzes: An Ethical and Legal Discussion?, Center for Art Law (June 19, 2023), https://itsartlaw.org/art-law/repatriation-of-the-benin-bronzes-an-ethical-and-legal-discussion/.
11. J. S. Marcus, Zurich’s Museum Rietberg Transfers 11 Benin Bronzes to Nigerian Government, The Art Newspaper, Mar. 20, 2026, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/03/20/zurichs-museum-rietberg-transfers-11-benin-bronzes-to-nigerian-government.
12. Alex Marshall, These Looted Treasures Are Home. What Now?, The New York Times, Dec. 9, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/arts/design/benin-bronzes-returned-nigeria.html.
13. Hannah McGivern, Trove of Benin Bronzes in US Museum Collections Repatriated to Nigeria, The Art Newspaper – International art news and events, Oct. 11, 2022, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/10/11/benin-bronzes-us-museum-collections-repatriated-nigeria.
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15. Joseph Nevadomsky, Studies of Benin Art and Material Culture, 1897-1997, 30 African Arts 18 (1997).
16. Barnaby Phillips, The Art Dealer, the £10m Benin Bronze and the Holocaust, Mar. 14, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56292809.
17. Suzanne Preston Blier, Africa and Paris: The Art of Picasso and His Circle, V: The Twentieth Century in The Image of the Black in Western Art 77 (2014), https://www.academia.edu/36898743/6_AFRICA_AND_PARIS_THE_ART_OF_PICASSO_AND_HIS_CIRCLE.
18. Rochelle Rowe, ‘The Negro Type of Beauty’: Black Women Modernist Muses in Jacob Epstein’s Art, 1915–1959, 35 Women’s History Review 245 (2026).
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20. Africa and Picasso, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, https://nasher.duke.edu/exhibitions/africa-and-picasso/ (last visited July 17, 2026).
21. Benin Bronzes, The British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/contested-objects-collection/benin-bronzes (last visited Sept. 9, 2026).
22. Catalogue, https://digitalbenin.org/catalogue?page=1&seed=d3e4f-5g6h7-8i9j0-k1l2m&provenance=DB_actor_902 (last visited Sept. 8, 2026).
23. Hew Locke, P·P·O·W, https://www.ppowgallery.com/artists/hew-locke#tab:thumbnails (last visited July 20, 2026).
24. Hew Locke: Living History | British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/hew-locke-living-history (last visited July 18, 2026).
25. Hewett, Kenneth John, https://digitalbenin.org/provenance/734 (last visited Sept. 9, 2026).
26. Pendant-Mask, Af1962,13.1, (16thC – 19thC), https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1962-13-1.
27. Pendant-Mask, Af1962,20.3, (16thC(late)-19thC(mid)), https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1962-20-3.
28. Ùhúnmwèlaò (Head of an Ọ́bà), (19th century), https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/310283.
29. British Museum Sold Benin Bronzes (2002), https://www.forbes.com/2002/04/03/0403conn/.
30. A Fine Benin Bronze Head, Lot Essay, Christies (2003), https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-4070059.
31. Hidden Treasure (2017), https://www.entwistlegallery.com/news/2017/january/hidden-treasure.
32. The Ten Distributions (1950s), Transcribe Wellcome (Oct. 4, 2022), https://docs.wellcomecollection.org/transcribe-wellcome/research/dispersals/the-ten-distributions-1950s.
33. Smithsonian Returns 29 Benin Bronzes to the National Commission for Museums and Monuments in Nigeria (2022), https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/smithsonian-returns-29-benin-bronzes-national-commission-museums-and-monuments.

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