Foreword Henrietta Lidchi

Foreword

Henrietta Lidchi

The promise of sustained and synthesized provenance research is that it can start to identify the questions that urgently need to be answered in order to understand better the nature and history of museum collections. If the focus of the first volume of this series was that of individual items in the

collection, the emphasis of this publication is a collection – a product of a merger – that can be conceived as one collection because of its link to time and place, broadly described as the Benin collection. The question that drives this publication, and its primary focus, is understanding how the collection of artworks attributed variously to Benin in the collection of the National Museum of World Cultures (NMVW), the Netherlands, were acquired. In questioning the manner in which these artworks came into the collection, the task of this report is to assess the likelihood of the link between the items in the care of NMVW and the attack in 1897 by British-led forces on Benin City (Nigeria), Kingdom of Benin in current day Edo State, Nigeria.

As noted in the foreword to the previous volume, Provenance, under series editor Wonu Veys, is a means of making our research available and accountable. There is

no doubt that Benin collections have long been in the public imagination. The royal artworks from Benin City that emerged onto the market in the late nineteenth century represent the best-known instance of internationally renowned artwork entering public and private collections globally as a consequence of seizure under colonial duress. So, this publication offers an analysis of all that is currently known about the means by which the four museums that constitute the NMVW came by their collection.

This report is timely for a number of reasons, but two will be mentioned as they pertain to the Dutch national context, and NMVW in particular. The return of cultural heritage is the subject of engaged public discussion in the Netherlands, and in response to this, in March 2019, NMVW published a framework entitled Return of Cultural Objects: Principles and Process (Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen 2019) which identified criteria on the basis of which claims for cultural heritage objects could be made. Return of Cultural Objects: Principles and Process has been shared with interested parties in Nigeria in 2018 and 2019. NMVW is a custodian of national collections and the Dutch State their owner. In consequence, all decisions as regards national collections require specific approval of the Minister of Education, Culture and Science (Minister van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap).

NMVW’s framework was approved as a pilot policy structure by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and shortly thereafter, in April 2019, its Minister, Ingrid van Engelshoven, asked for a national advisory committee to be constituted. It was to provide guidance on the way forward for colonial collections, and in particular provide recommendations as regards how to devise a policy on return. The guidance finalised by the advisory committee was handed to the Minister on the 7 October 2020, entitled Koloniale Collecties en Erkenning van Onrecht (Colonial Collections and a Recognition of Injustice, Raad voor Cultuur 2020). The policy implications were being announced as editorial work was being undertaken on this publication (29 January 2021).

A number of important principles can be found in the full report, shorter summary recommendation, and the policy vision announced in January. Two are highlighted here. The first is that colonial relations constituted a systemic injustice that has been transformed over time into a material legacy held in museums. Museums are beholden to recognize this fact, to act as responsible custodians in regard to source countries and to engage in means of repair. Making provenance research accessible is a way of achieving this.

The second was that the committee could conceive that a return policy which actively included the idea of redress would, logically, consider the type of artwork seized under duress as the category of work that should be unconditionally returned. The committee opted to recommend unconditional return especially for cultural heritage objects from former Dutch colonies seized with lack of consent or where the owners lost possession involuntarily, but accepted that a principle of redress was applicable more widely. This has been upheld by the policy vision announced in January 2021. In this context, this published research on the Benin collection is especially important, allowing that future conversation to happen.