Authentic African artefact

2002-09-18 13:08

London - For nearly 30 years, a regal African bronze head has been part of Queen Elizabeth II's art collection, assumed to be an ordinary replica of a valuable 17th century tribal bronze from Benin in west Africa.

But a British art journalist said on Monday the head has now been found to be an authentic artefact dating from around 1600, and was taken from a Lagos museum by the Nigerian leader who presented it to Her Majesty in the 1970s.

Martin Bailey decided to investigate after seeing the 12-inch (30-cm) bronze displayed at Buckingham Palace to mark the queen's Golden Jubilee. "It struck me as having all the qualities of an authentic piece," he said.

Bailey said inquiries had established that Nigerian leader Gen. Yakubu Gowon - who presented the head to the queen during a state visit in 1973 in gratitude for Britain's help during the Biafran civil war - initially commissioned a replica Benin head for the British monarch, but disliked the result.

Gowon, who led Nigeria from 1966 to 1975, then decided to see what the National Museum in Lagos had to offer, Bailey said.

In an article in the latest edition of the British specialist publication, "The Art Newspaper," Bailey quotes British art expert Prof John Picton, who worked at the museum in the 1970s, as saying that before Gowon arrived, museum director Ekpo Eyo "managed to remove a few of the finest and unique items and put them in the store."

When Gowon took one of the bronzes on display, "Dr Eyo was horrified because it was quite improper for the state to be raiding the museum," Picton was quoted as saying.

Bailey said Gowon apparently gave no explanation of the head's origins and royal aides seem to have assumed it was a replica. It has been authenticated by Picton and Nigel Barley, an expert from the British Museum in London.

Royal Collection officials accepted the experts' finding but said they had received no requests for the return of the bronze. "At the time it was presented to us as a modern copy and there was no reason to doubt that," said spokeswoman Frances Dunkels.

The bronze, possibly a symbolic representation of the Oba, or king, of Benin, probably stood on an altar in the royal palace. In 1897, a British expedition looted the palace and took some 3 000 ivory and bronze artworks back to Britain.

Many of the objects sold were to pay the expenses of the expeditionary force, and buyers included the British Museum, and museums in Liverpool and Berlin. Bailey said the head now in the queen's possession was probably purchased in London between 1946 and 1957, when Nigeria was still a British colony and was establishing a national museum.

On the web:

The Art Newspaper - Sapa/AP

- SAPA