In 1897, a British force carried out a punitive expedition against the Kingdom of Benin after a group of British colonial officers were killed. Benin City was destroyed and burned, many inhabitants were killed, and the city's cultural treasures were taken as war loot and sent to London. Among these were the famous Benin Bronzes, elaborately decorated sculptures and reliefs from a centuries-old craft tradition. They were soon scattered across museums throughout the Western world, and some ended up in Norway, at the Historical Museum, through German and British dealers.
In the new exhibition HERITAGE, some of the museum's Benin Bronzes are displayed under the question, "Who owns heritage?" We can reflect on who should decide the future of these objects.
Dr. Barbara Plankensteiner is the director of MARKK, the ethnographic museum in Hamburg, and has spearheaded the effort to catalog Benin Bronzes in museums worldwide. She is a leading expert in this field.
We invite you to a lecture and discussion about the significant issues surrounding museums, decolonization, and the repatriation of cultural heritage.
Doors open at 16:45. Refreshments will be available outside the lecture hall before and after the lecture.
Guided Tour:
Before the lecture, we invite you to a 15-minute guided tour of the HERITAGE exhibition with Professor Øivind Fuglerud from the Museum of Cultural History, with a focus on the museum's Benin Bronzes.
The exhibition will be open until 19:15, so there will be an opportunity to visit it after the lecture.