I’ve been vaguely following the recent twists and turns about the Benin Bronzes. It’s a complicated situation that makes the Elgin Marbles look straightforward.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/benin-bronzes-nigeria-western-museums/674650/

The return of benin art to Nigeria is advanced as a great moral reckoning. In all my many conversations with Nigerians, including those most scornful of their government, I have met very few who did not hope to see the Benin treasures eventually return home. Yet as it is being executed, the return is likely to end by converting public art collections into private wealth on a large scale.

Some proponents of repatriation argue that whatever happens next to the Nigerian treasures is nobody’s business but Nigeria’s. […]

It’s an argument that resonates with many in the West, especially if they do not linger too long over it. It depends on reading “Nigeria” as a single entity, erasing individuality from the story. It’s not going to be “Nigeria” that makes the choice to sell or to display the Benin bronzes. It’s going to be one person and one family, who prevailed in a fierce political contest for control of art assets together worth hundreds of millions of dollars or more. Among those parties fighting for control of the objects, there were few true innocents.