The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is already under pressure this week for loaning out its most popular pieces. Now, human rights group Edo United for Homeland Empowerment is renewing controversy over a series of Benin artworks in the collection of the MFA and demanding their return to the state of Nigeria. Over two years ago, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments in Nigeria called for the return of the same 32 artifacts, which were part of a collection donated by Robert Owen Lehman and are now housed in the museum’s Benin Kingdom Gallery.
“To protect cultural heritage is a basic requirement of human civilization,” the organization said in a statement from president Frank Ekhator, vice president Dickson Iyawe, and secretary Omolayo Omoruyi-Ukhuedoba.
