In the depots of the ethnological museums in Dresden and Leipzig there are over 200 of the Benin bronzes stolen in the colonial era.
Members of the Dresden artist group Brücke saw them - and were inspired.
Dresden - The State Ethnographic Collections (SES) in Saxony are interested in some objects related to Dresden and European art history in connection with the return of the Benin bronzes, which are considered colonial looted property. Director Léontine Meijer-van Mensch thinks it is possible that the Nigerian colleagues "would like to have objects as ambassadors in Europe". An exchange of objects is also conceivable, "if pieces were important for the history of our two houses or the history of art in Europe," she told the German Press Agency.
Members of the expressionist artist group Brücke, founded in Dresden in 1905, including Emil Nolde, were inspired by the bronzes. “The Brücke artists saw the Benin pieces in the Zwinger at that time and processed them sculpturally, but above all also painterly,” said Meijer-van Mensch. These works were exhibited, but many paintings were lost as a result of the Nazi campaign “Degenerate Art”.
With 263 objects, the SES has the second largest inventory of works of art after Berlin, which can be traced back to the British looting of the then Kingdom of Benin in 1897. The pieces came to the ethnological museums in different ways. These include bronze figures, heads of kings and animals. "We have a very beautiful and well-known leopard," said the museum director. Relief plates are also among them, ivory and smaller objects such as bracelets, “so across the board”. Everything stays in the depot until the ownership has been clarified. Apart from that, it is about the ethical aspect. "What does it mean for joint presentations, research, work if the property is elsewhere?"
Meijer-van Mensch pleads for a pause for thought in order to find out what an appropriate form of togetherness can be, with colleagues and actors from Nigeria, the embassy and beyond.
“To do this, we are relinquishing the authority to interpret more plurality.” The debate needs multiple perspectives and transparency, and explaining “how things got into the museum”.
The paths of the pieces should also be examined separately from the question of return and shown in the new permanent exhibition at the Grassi Museum für Völkerkunde in Leipzig - this also includes the nationally and internationally intertwined collector's milieu.
In Leipzig the publisher brothers Hans and Hermann Meyer were important, in Dresden the explorer Arthur Baessler.
also read
Bahn employee opens locker - and makes an unusual discovery
Unusual objects are found when a locker is opened at a train station in Rostock.
A little later the police are investigating.
Bahn employee opens locker - and makes an unusual discovery
Actor Heinz Lieven died in Hamburg
Heinz Lieven worked as an actor for more than 70 years: in front of the TV camera, in international film productions and on theater stages.
Lieven has now died at the age of 93.
Actor Heinz Lieven died in Hamburg
Application for the bin?
The Greens and the SPD want to examine the new waste system in Munich - but that's already happening
The Greens and the SPD want to have a new system for plastic waste checked - the yellow bin, for example, but also recycling bins.
The municipal department has been doing this for a long time.
Application for the bin?
The Greens and the SPD want to examine the new waste system in Munich - but that's already happening
The Nigerian colleagues should come in spring 2022 and decide "what they want back, what can possibly remain or what goes later," said Meijer-van Mensch.
And the question of loans will play a role here.
In addition to the bridge pieces, she can imagine talking about doubles or several similar pieces.
"We are committed to robbery and return and first open the door very transparently," she said.
"And when the ownership has been clarified, then we can show things again, in the right context." Dpa