Head of an Oba

Artists

Description

This work is one of the bronze, ivory and wooden artworks broadly known as the “Benin Bronzes."

Dimensions

22.7 x 21 x 23 cm (8 15/16 x 8 1/4 x 9 1/16 in.) with base: 31.3 x 24.4 x 23 cm (12 5/16 x 9 5/8 x 9 1/16 in.)

Provenance

The royal palace, Benin City; probably taken by British forces during the Punitive Expedition, 1897. [Louis Carré, Paris], sold; [through Knoedler & Co., New York]; to Mrs. John D. Rockefeller (née Abby Aldrich), New York, January 3, 1936, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1937 The bronze, ivory and wooden artworks broadly known as the “Benin Bronzes” were taken from Benin City as part of the British Punitive Expedition of 1897 and dispersed to private collections and museums around the world. The Harvard Art Museums acknowledge the violence and trauma of the Expedition and understand that the presence of this cultural material in Western museums is experienced as continued injustice by descendent communities.