After the publication of the Article EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN MUSEUM DIRECTORS AND THE LEGALITY CONCEPT by Afrikanet.info Author Dr. Kwame Opoku, Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York replies: 

I read with interest Dr. Kwame Opoku’s article EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN MUSEUM DIRECTORS AND THE LEGALITY CONCEPT  and glanced at the photo that accompanied it.

What a haunting, strange-looking object. There is no caption accompanying the photograph so I looked in books and found that this was a product of ancient Nigeria, the Nok culture. I also discovered that more than 2,000 years ago as well an Ife culture in Nigeria produced sculpture that I found simply divine. As beautiful as anything produced at any time in the West.

Then I went to our African galleries and found – as must our audience of some 4.5 million visitors a year – that Nigeria seemed to have produced no art before the much later Benin period, well represented at the Metropolitan Museum. Why is that? Simply because the Metropolitan Museum does not own either a Nok or an Ife object. Their export and acquisition are strictly forbidden, therefore the Metropolitan Museum has refrained from their acquisition.

We have tried for years to convince the Nigerian authorities to place one object from each of these great cultures on loan to the Metropolitan for the benefit of our audiences, but unfortunately, to no avail.

Dr. Opoku believes all Nok, Ife, and Benin pieces outside of Nigeria should be returned to Nigeria; that all works produced on its territory should remain there.

How this advances broad knowledge of the rich cultural history of Nigeria is a mystery to me.

 

Philippe de Montebello

Director

The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

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