Head of a King (Oba)

Head of a King (Oba)

On 11 October 2022, the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum transferred the Head of a King (Oba) to the Nigerian National Collections. The Head was one of 31 pieces returned to the Nigerian Government during a ceremony at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, including 29 objects from the Smithsonian Institution and one object from the National Gallery of Art.

Each returned artefact was looted during the sacking of Benin Kingdom by British colonial forces during the tragic punitive expedition of 1897. The Head holds particular significance to the Edo people of West Africa – standing as an altar object that honours a royal ancestor. These commemorative heads are commissioned by an incoming oba (or king) as part of a coronation ceremony to honour his departed predecessor.

Lucy Truman Aldrich, an art collector, purchased the Head in 1935 from Knoedler Gallery in New York. Notably, the Head was potentially held in a collection in France prior to the sale, as a French customs stamp and a sticker reading “Imported from France” were found on the interior of the object. Aldrich donated the piece to the RISD Museum in 1939.

In 2020, the Fine Arts Committee and Board of Governors of RISD Museum unanimously voted for the Head’s deaccession from its collection in preparation for its return to Nigeria.

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Sculpture – statues, carvings, bronzes, reliefs, figurines

Religious Work – crucifixes, shrine objects, icons, religious texts

Beninese (Edo People)

Rhode Island School of Design Museum (RISD)

D39.054

Nigeria

Digital Benin https://digitalbenin.org/catalogue/130_804141

Beninese, West Africa Head of a king (Oba), probably 1700s https://web.archive.org/web/20201026215342/https://risdmuseum.org/art-design/collection/head-king-oba-d39054

Emma Cudlipp

Jason Felch