Benin court art

Benin court art includes cast metal, carved works and other objects made for the royal and ancestral life of the kingdom of Benin, in what is now Nigeria. Specialist guilds worked for the court. Plaques and altars had different uses, even though museum accounts often gather them under the name Benin Bronzes. Many of the metal works are brass. British forces looted the palace and shrines during the expedition of 1897. Objects were dispersed and later reached museums through purchases, gifts and other transfers. A later purchase records one step in that chain. It does not erase the earlier seizure. The Museum’s group includes plaques now in storage and an Altar of the Hand made for a Queen Mother, currently displayed in Room 25, Case 6. That altar shows the iyoba with female attendants. The plaques and the altar belong to different forms of court work, with their own functions and display histories.