display
The head of the Benin Dialogue Group, Barbara Plankensteiner, has emphasized the importance of the Benin bronzes captured during colonial raids for international cultural history.
It is a shame and regrettable that the valuable works are only ever talked about as looted art.
“In the current debates, hardly anyone asks: What kind of works of art are these anyway?
And what are they actually telling us?
You wouldn't do that with European art objects, even if they are looted art, ”said the director of the Hamburg Museum am Rothenbaum.
Barbara Plankensteiner is the head of the Benin Dialogue Group.
She warns against hasty steps
Source: dpa
“It's not just looted goods, these are highlights of global art,” is her assessment.
In the debates it is always forgotten to point out how important these works are for understanding an art history that extends beyond the Euro-American area.
Recently there has been increasing discussion about returning art stolen during colonialism.
This is also the case with the Benin bronzes, which can be found in numerous German museums.
They are to play a central role in the Berlin Humboldt Forum.
The Ethnological Museum has around 530 historical objects from the Kingdom of Benin, including around 440 bronzes.
display
Most of the objects came from the British looting in 1897. The Digital Benin Project is currently collecting data on the 3,000 to 5,000 works of art scattered around the world in order to at least digitally bring together the royal art treasures and enable research.
The Benin Dialogue Group has been bringing together museums from Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden with Nigerian partners and representatives of the royal court of Benin since 2010.
Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters (CDU) is planning a high-level meeting on the question of how German museums should deal with the Benin bronzes, which were considered looted from the colonial era.
Invitations are to be held for this in April.
Plankensteiner thinks it makes sense “that 20 museums do not negotiate individually with Nigeria, that would also be complicated there.” That is why it is helpful to come to an agreement in Germany in order to be able to hold discussions better and to plan the processes.
There are also Benin bronzes in Hamburg
display
Plankensteiner, whose museum also has Benin bronzes, also warned against hasty steps in a heated debate.
"There is absolutely no point - even towards the Nigerian partners - now to force things that put them under pressure." Restitutions from public holdings are complex processes.
"That doesn't mean just packing objects in a box and sending them back."
The museum director also referred to intergovernmental implications that both sides should prepare well.
"Something like this can take longer, so there are still a lot of discussions to be held." It is a very comprehensive task to coordinate and agree centrally between the houses and with the Nigerian partners.
From the point of view of the Benin Dialogue Group, Plankensteiner welcomes developments in German diplomacy.
Foreign Minister Heike Maas (SPD) recently announced that the Benin Bronzes would work with those involved in Nigeria and Germany to develop a common framework.
"It is gratifying that Germany is now committed and wants to actively support this project," said Plankensteiner.
"That emerged from the activities of the German museums in the Benin Dialog Group."
"It is a complex undertaking"
display
Plankensteiner assesses the situation in museums similarly.
"I have the impression that there is already a fair amount of agreement between the museums in Germany on the subject of restitutions." Conversations that took place in the background could not, however, be continuously commented on in public.
It is currently being announced “before we have negotiated all of this.
And that's exactly what we wanted to avoid, ”said Plankensteiner.
“It's just a complex undertaking with so many partners.
This takes a while."
The cultural and social anthropologist sees a development in the debate about returns.
"You cannot equate the conditions of the 70s and 80s with today's." The situation has developed politically.
“When we founded the Benin Dialog Group ten years ago, hardly any politician was interested in the subject.
With restitutions it was always said that there was no legal basis for it. "
Restitution or loan?
The museums would also have acted in this context.
"That is why we in the Benin Dialog Group initially agreed that we would start with permanent loans, because that is something that could also be decided at museum level." In the meantime there have been fundamental changes.
"There is a political awareness that says: Yes, we understand that. We have to do something and we will support restitutions."
Whether restitution or loan for the Edo Museum of West African Arts planned in Benin City is a matter of negotiation for the expert.
“There are all sorts of ways of thinking that you can then agree on.
That also has to do with the opinion of the partners in Nigeria. "Plankensteiner:" Everyone involved, also in Nigeria, understands that it is important that this art continues to be represented in the world, and museums here and there able to show important works in the USA. "
Negotiations have to be made in the near future on how this can be guaranteed.
"The point is to clarify what is going back to Nigeria and in what form, and which plants can possibly remain here."