Benin City
The Kingdom of Benin cast history in bronze from the 13th century—then Britain looted 3,000+ pieces in 1897. The guild on Igun Street still casts, but can barely afford materials. MOWAA opened in 2024 to display bronzes that are still in London and Berlin.
The Benin Bronzes are in London, Berlin, and New York. The city that made them is in Nigeria, still casting. The Kingdom of Benin flourished from the 13th century as one of West Africa's most sophisticated states, governed by an Oba (king) from a palace in what is now Benin City, Edo State. The lost-wax bronze casting technique, practiced by the Guild of Bronze Casters on Igun Street since before the 13th century, produced thousands of plaques, heads, and figures that documented royal history, diplomatic encounters, and court life. UNESCO listed the Oba's palace and Igun Street as a cultural heritage site in 1999.
The British destroyed all of it in 1897. A 'punitive expedition'—retaliating for the killing of British envoys, though scholars argue it was a premeditated imperial land grab—sacked the city, burned the palace, and looted an estimated 3,000–5,000 bronze artworks. Two hundred went to the British Museum. Others scattered across European and American collections. The kingdom's visual archive—its history cast in metal—was dispersed across the institutions of the empire that stole it.
Modern Benin City has risen to 2 million residents, anchored by agriculture (rubber and palm oil production), civil service employment as Edo State's capital, and a vibrant informal economy. The Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), founded by Phillip Ihenacho, opened in 2024 with conservation labs, exhibition halls, and an archaeological dig—but without the bronzes it was built to display. Germany returned its collection to Nigeria in 2022, but the repatriated works were handed to the Oba rather than the museum, and the political dynamics of who holds the bronzes remain unresolved. MOWAA is expected to generate $80 million annually and create 30,000 jobs.
The bronze casters of Igun Street still work, but they face extinction. Raw materials—copper and zinc—have become scarce and expensive. The same guild system that sustained Benin's economy for seven centuries before European contact now struggles to survive in a global supply chain it doesn't control. The artisans who invented the technique that European museums prize can barely afford the materials to practice it.