Linden-Museum Stuttgart: 005410
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| Linden-Museum Stuttgart: 005410 License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) |
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Object description
This information was provided by the German museum where the object is currently located or where it was located prior to restitution.
| Object Name | Commemorative (copper alloy) sculpture for an Oba |
| Description | Such ancestor heads were cast beginning around 1280 to commemorate deceased kings and queen mothers. This one dates from the 18th century, from this time on they were made with a flange at the base. This flange shows royal animals like catfish and leopard. Besides, also elephant trunks with hands at the end, symbolizing the "god of the hand", and triangular stone axes, representing "divine wrath". These memorial heads were located on several (in 1897 there were 13) altars, each in a courtyard of the royal residence. They were sacrificed regularly and served to venerate the royal ancestors, who after their death could still bring benefits to their people, but also send punishments. The reigning king, as the chief priest, was responsible for this ancestor worship (and thus for the spiritual well-being of his people). Text: Dietmar Neitzke. |
| Type | Plastik |
| Materials | Copper alloy |
| Size, Dimensions | Heigth: 42 cm. Diameter: 34 cm. |
| Dating of Object |
Museum / Collection / Acquisition
This information was provided by the German museum where the object is currently located or where it was located prior to restitution.
| Museum | Linden-Museum Stuttgart |
| Museum Inv.-No | 005410 |
| Collector | Felix von Luschan (Berlin) purchased a large number of royal objects produced in the Benin Kingdom and sold parts of the collection to other museums. The objects reserved for Stuttgart were paid by Karl Knorr (Heilbronn, Germany). |
| Acquisition date | 1899 |
| Circumstances of acquisition | In October 1898, the Hamburg company "H. Bey & Co" offered the Berlin Ethnological Museum a Benin collection that came directly from Africa. However, due to a lack of funds, the entire collection could not be purchased and was therefore to be passed on to other interested parties. Felix von Luschan of the Berlin Museum therefore informed Karl Graf von Linden in November 1898, and offered him a right of first refusal. The Linden Museum then made 15,000 M available for the purchase of objects. The purchase price was paid by the Heilbronn entrepreneur Karl Knorr, which is why the collection became known as "Die Karl Knorr'sche Sammlung von Benin-Altertümern". Von Luschan published a detailed description of the collection under the same title (1901) on behalf of Count Linden and Knorr. Other buyers of the collection included the museums in Vienna and Munich, but also people such as Hans Meyer (Leipzig) and Eugen Rautenstrauch (Cologne). Text: Markus Himmelsbach. |
| Notes |
Current ownership status and location
| Status | restituted |
| Date of last status change | 14 December 2022 |
| Current ownership | Federal Republic of Nigeria |
| Holding institution | National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM, Nigeria) |
| Current location | Temporarily at the Linden-Museum Stuttgart |
Categorization for the search functions
This information was included by the German Contact Point for Collections from Colonial Contexts and is intended to make the object easier to find in the database.
| Object Type | sculpture |
| Materials | metal; copper alloy |
| Tags |
Dataset
| ID | 144 |
| last Change | 2023-01-26 12:15:00 |
| License | Linden-Museum Stuttgart |