The question of ethics in how museums acquire art has not been largely explored by the art world itself. Shining a light on that now, Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh has kicked off a poster campaign aimed at repatriating sculptures looted from Benin by British troops in 1897.
The sculptures are currently on view across Europe and North America and the Ogboh posters, currently installed in public locations in and near Dresden, Germany call attention to the stolen Benin bronzes in posters with “Missing in Benin,” written across them. The campaign kicked off after Ogboh was commissioned to create posters for the bronzes.
Now in Dresden’s Museum für Völkerkunde collection, the particular bronzes caused a stir in the artist who after releasing the posters stated… “No one is exempt from the repercussions of colonialism and as long as issues of agency, ownership, and freedom continue to exist, society must act as a whole to repatriate artifacts that are simply not theirs.”