By RFIPosted on 17-01-2020Modified on 17-01-2020 at 00:37

The collections of the Small Museum of the Récade in Lobozounkpa, in Benin, will be enriched with new pieces, including 28 royal scepters of Dahomey. An operation made possible by a group of Parisian antique dealers.

Little by little, Benin is regaining its royal heritage. The Little Lobozounkpa Recade Museum, 10 km from Cotonou, will see its collection enriched with new pieces this Friday. Sabers, objects of worship, and 28 recades, these royal scepters of Dahomey in the shape of a bent cane, with a polished wooden handle and a top part in wrought metal most often representing an animal. When it opened in 2015, the museum already received 37 of these scepters from the Fon kingdom.

► Also read: The Small Museum of the Recade: the return of the pieces to Benin before the restitution

This Friday's return was made possible by a private initiative, far from the controversies over the restitution of works of art to African countries. The Parisian gallery owner Robert Vallois has succeeded in bringing together a group of antique dealers, including specialists in the arts of Africa.

These pieces have had a troubled history. Collected by French colonial administrators during the expedition against Dahomey at the end of the 19th century, they should have been dispersed in an auction last year in Nantes. A local association seized the Ministry of Culture to block the sale and the Collectif des antiquaires de Saint-Germain-des-Prés acquired them to give them to Benin.

In addition to the 27 recades purchased by the collective, another, acquired by the Vallois gallery. " They are not looted objects," says Valentine Plisnier, of the Vallois gallery. The recades are not part of the market for ancestral African art. And we have the pedigree of most of the recades we acquire. "

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