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During the second half of the 19th century, British imperial ambitions for control over west African resources and territory involved plans to force the Oba to open the Edo Kingdom to British commercial firms and missionaries.
In 1892 Oba Ovonramwen was pressured into signing an illegitimate treaty of ‘protection’ with the British. He failed to comply with its terms, so a party of nine British colonial officials attempted to travel to Benin City in January 1897 to persuade him to do so. The Oba asked them to delay their visit, but they refused. A number of Edo titled chiefs then organised an ambush that resulted in the death of seven of the British officials as well as most of their African servants and porters. In response, the British sent a ‘punitive expedition’ of 1200 troops to Benin City to depose the Oba by force and take over the Edo Kingdom. British troops occupied and ransacked the royal palace, looting between 3000 and 5000 objects of immense cultural value from the palace compounds and other sites.
Taken to Britain, many of the looted objects were auctioned off by the British Admiralty to help cover the costs of the venture. Today most of these objects are in European and North American museums, including some in National Museums Scotland's collections. Made of cast brass, bronze, carved ivory and wood and often referred to as ‘Benin Bronzes’, they are the focus of public debate on the restitution of African heritage looted during the colonial period.
There are 77 objects in the museum collection, of which most are believed to be connected to the 1897 ‘punitive expedition’. Of these, five of them have a documented link to British military officers who took part in the looting of Benin City in 1897, while another five are of uncertain origin. Between 1897 and 1903 William Downing Webster sold the museum 34 works from Benin and made one donation. Webster was a British dealer and collector of ‘ethnographic’ material who bought many works from admiralty auctions and members of the ‘punitive expedition’, which he sold to museums and collectors across Europe. National Museums Scotland acquired further items from Benin in the 20th century through purchases and donations, including eight that are not thought to be connected with the British military attack of 1897.
The museum’s collection from Benin City includes extraordinary brass plaques with scenes and figures cast in relief that were made around the late 16th to the 17th century for the walls and columns of the Oba’s palace. It also includes a brass altar piece which features the Iyoba, or Queen Mother of Benin, which is one of only a few representations of Edo women in museum collections outside Nigeria. These brilliant works represent an important record of dynastic history and the political culture of the Edo Kingdom.