How can we buy art looted by colonizers from a burnt African city? I wrote about one of the #BeninBronzes, which will be auctioned by @ChristiesInc on Monday: hyperallergic.com/573457/fishy-p… (@hyperallergic @hragv) 
Like the statues of slave-owners now being protested around the world, this fish — which will be auctioned by Christie’s auction house in Paris next week — represents a past of violent oppression.
In 1897, Benin's ruler, the Oba, dared impose an embargo on exporting palm-oil products into British-controlled territory. British traders complained, and James Robert Phillips, the Acting Consul-General of the neighboring Niger Coast Protectorate, advanced into Benin.
Phillips' aim was to depose the Oba and bring Benin under British control, but his expedition was attacked. The British Admiralty, under the premise of avenging the dead, sent what they called a Punitive Expedition to complete their mission of colonization.
After three days of looting, they burnt Benin’s capital city and went home with thousands of artworks pulled from the Oba’s palace - the first of the countless resources taken from a colonized Benin before Nigeria declared its independence in 1954.
Now, only a handful remain in Nigeria. The rest are scattered in museums and private collections, mainly in Europe and the Americas. smarthistory.org/benin-plaque-e…
The plaque for sale shows an African sharp-toothed catfish. In Benin, they were revered for their powers of survival. They have special breathing systems that allow them to survive for a year burrowed into the mud of a dried-up pond before the rains return to let them swim again.
This sculpture, like the catfish it represents, seems to have been in suspended animation since it was taken from Benin. It's time for it to go home. Let @ChristiesInc know what you think!
The Benin fish isn’t the only morally questionable item for sale in the upcoming auction. Christie’s is also offering two sacred sculptures removed from Nigeria in the late 1960s, during the chaos of a civil war: instagram.com/p/CBFMuvbFE7k/…
A petition to stop their sale asks potential buyers not to forget that “it is not just the black body, but also black culture, identity and especially art that is being misappropriated.” change.org/p/united-natio…
The auction also features a Hopi katchina statue. Hopi representatives tried to prevent katsinim and other sacred objects from being auctioned off in France in 2016 but failed. The laws that prevent these sales in United States don’t apply in Europe. @samtsaidwhat @TheHopiTribe
All these objects come from the Alsdorf estate. Earlier in June, @ChristiesInc withdrew four Greek and Roman antiquities another Alsdorf sale when evidence emerged that they had been looted and smuggled out of Italy.
If we don't want to celebrate racism and colonial violence in our public monuments, we shouldn't accept it in our art collections, either. #BeninBronzes and stolen sacred objects should not be for sale. @mcsts @BeninOba @GUnrecht @BrutishMuseum @ztsamudzi @elginism @theOluwatosin
Thread on a Benin Bronze for sale - attn: @juergenzimmerer @ayodejirotinwa @VardasGeorge @victorsozaboy @EromoEgbejule @DavidOlusoga @MFA_Nigeria @drop_BP @futureofmuseums @BlkHistStudies @AfricaResearch @Bonn1eGreer @victorsozaboy @GuardianNigeria
On the same day, @ChristiesInc is selling a lot of pre-Columbian artifacts without good provenance. I did a thread looking at some of those here:
We might think collectors who sell looted cultural heritage don't understand the pain they're causing - but look who's quoted in Christie's publicity for the sale. She's both the collectors' granddaughter and an art historian @Princeton.
She's a colleague of @Chikaokekeagulu, and should be aware of his powerful protests about this auction: theguardian.com/world/2020/jun….
