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#BlackArtsMatter: “Looted” Biafran statues go under the hammer

Paris auction of Nigerian sculptures “looted” from shrines in south-eastern Nigeria during the Biafran War proceeds despite outcry

Christie’s, the renowned art auction house, has sold two statues “looted” from Nigeria five decades ago during the civil war. The sculptures were put up for sale in Paris on Monday (29 June) despite determined protests by prominent Nigerian artists and academics.

Chika Okeke-Agulu, director of graduate studies in the department of art and archaeology at Princeton University, insists that the artefacts were “looted” from Nigeria during the three-year-long Biafran War in the 1960s.

The two wooden sculptures, one male and one female, were taken forcibly from shrines in south-eastern Nigeria during the war.

Act of violence

Pre-sale estimates put the value of the historic artworks at between €250,000 and €350,000 (US$280,000 to $390,000). Eventually, they sold to an unnamed online bidder for €212,500 with fees (roughly $238,000).

Professor Okeke-Agulu argues that the artefacts should not be sold for profit because they are the collective heritage of the Igbo people and were acquired through “an act of violence”. The sculptures were acquired by Jacques Kerchache, a renowned French art collector and trusted advisor of the late French president Jacques Chirac.

Known as the “French Indiana Jones”, he was famed for his acquisitions of West African art associated with cults and spirits. Kerchache died in 2011.

Okeke-Agulu expressed frustration that his demands that the auction of the “looted” statues be cancelled went unheard, insisting that the artworks could not have been acquired by legal means.

“Growing up in Nigeria, we would pass by these destroyed and looted shrines and they would point to them, ‘These were the shrines that were looted and destroyed during the war,’ ” he told the BBC.

“To pretend we don’t matter – what we think doesn’t matter – is, for me, a recast of the colonial arrogance that we are still dealing with in other parts of the African continent,” he said.

An online petition demanding the cancellation of the auction attracted over 2,000 signatures.

Christie’s rejects accusations

There have been renewed calls for the return of African artefacts to African countries, as the Black Lives Matter protests continue to make waves.

Christie’s insists that the Nigerian artefacts were acquired legally, saying there has not been “any suggestion that these statues were subject to improper export”.

The auction house issued a statement saying: “There is no evidence these statues were removed from their original location by someone who was not local to the area.”

Okeke-Agulu, who grew up in the Biafran war zone, not far from where the statues were made, said in an Instagram post that the Christie’s Igbo figures were among many artefacts stolen by intermediaries at the behest of European and American dealers and collectors.

“These artworks are stained with the blood of Biafra’s children,” he wrote on Instagram post three weeks ago calling for a halt to the sale of the statues.

E A Alanore

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Source
BBC News
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