Adjaye Associates, along with the Legacy Restoration Trust of Nigeria and the British Museum, has unveiled plans and renderings for the Edo Museum of West African Art (EMOWAA), a project formerly known as the Benin Royal Museum. Sited next to Oba’s Palace in Benin City, Nigeria, the new museum is a catalyst in a three-pronged effort: to create a home and interpretive center for the art and artifacts of Benin’s heritage; to engage in archeological work in the ancient royal city, on the museum site; and to push for the restitution of countless objects looted during the colonial period, now housed in institutions across the U.K, Europe, and North America. Among the most famous of these artworks are Benin bronzes—cast sculptures and plaques with reliefs, many from the kingdom’s palace—of which the British Museum has 900 in its collection.
The elegant bronzes (often composed, actually, of another metal or alloy) date from as early as the 13th century and probably became known to Europeans through the Portuguese, who began trading along the West African coast in the 15th century. But the most destructive single event in the wholesale scattering of the bronzes and other historical artifacts around the world was the brutal sacking and razing of the royal city of Benin by the British in 1897.
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