Researching the provenance of objects from the Kingdom of Benin

This research proposal funded by the German Lost Art Foundation focuses on objects from the Kingdom of Benin (in present-day Nigeria) which are in the collection of the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt. This six-month project aims to examine the provenance of these objects in greater detail and reconstruct the disparate conditions surrounding their acquisition. A particular emphasis will be placed on determining whether – and which – objects from the British “punitive” expedition in 1897 were brought to Europe and ultimately ended up in the Völkermuseum, as the Weltkulturen Museum was then called.

Out of the approximately 14,000 objects from Africa in the Frankfurt museum, 57 have been listed in the inventory as having a geographical link to Benin. Although some of these objects from Benin have been presented in various exhibitions and publications, the conditions surrounding their acquisition have received little attention to date. Conducting research into the history of the objects has been hindered by the history of the museum itself: the Weltkulturen Museum collections date back to the holdings of the Senckenbergische Naturforschenden Gesellschaft, which was established in 1817. Parts of its collection were transferred to the Historisches Museum in 1877 and were further transferred to the newly founded Städtische Völkermuseum in 1904. This museum had to move premises a number of times and was subject to multiple bombing attacks during World War II. Between 1924 and 1969 the museum was associated with the Frobenius-Institut (then known as the Forschungsinstitut für Kulturmorphologie). Since 1973, the museum has been permanently based at Schaumainkai 29, where it exhibits parts of its collections. Generally speaking, information about the origins of the objects is extremely limited due to the crucial loss of the museum’s own documentary archive when Frankfurt was bombed in the war. The few archived documents to have survived contain very little information on how the Benin objects made their way into the collection.

The project will have to research documents in other museums and archives that contain details about previous owners and how they acquired their objects, as well as comparing objects in the Weltkulturen Museum with those in other institutions. This research will be conducted by the cultural studies scholar Audrey Peraldi on behalf of the Weltkulturen Museum. The findings will serve as the starting point for an in-depth dialogue with Nigerian partners and facilitate political negotiations at the municipal and national levels.

(c) Museum der Weltkulturen