Nigerian Protesters Force Sotheby’s To Shelve Planned Sale Of Stolen Benin Ivory Mask

Nigerian protesters scored a huge victory the day before Christmas when the auction house, Sotheby's, issued a rare press release announcing the cancellation of its sale of a prized Benin ivory mask. In a statement dated December 24, Sotheby’s disclosed the cancellation of the auction, which had been scheduled for February 17, 2011 in London.

The auction had spurred a widespread protest by Nigerians and other sympathetic groups organized by the UK-based Nigeria Liberty Forum   (NLF). Hundreds of protesters had contacted Sotheby’s in writing, through phone calls or by street protests to demand the cancellation of the sale and to push for the return of the mask to Nigeria.

The mask was stolen during the colonial era by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lionel Galway, who had acted as a deputy commissioner and vice-consul in what is now known as the Niger Delta region. Mr. Galway and other British soldiers of fortune had engaged in a massive plunder of prized artifacts when British soldiers attacked the Benin Kingdom, looted its prized possessions and burnt down the city.

Mr. Galway’s descendants had contacted Sotheby's to handle the sale of the masks expected to fetch as much as £5 million.

But in the face of widespread protests, Sotheby’s issued a terse statement titled “STATEMENT REGARDING CANCELLATION OF BENIN SALE”. The statement read: “The Benin Ivory Pendant Mask and other items consigned by the descendants of Lionel Galway which Sotheby’s had announced for auction in February 2011 have been withdrawn from sale at the request of the consignors.”

In an earlier press release dated December 20, 2010, Sotheby's had exuberantly announced that it planned to auction off a “16th century ivory pendant mask depicting the head of the Queen mother from the Edo peoples, Kingdom of Benin in Nigeria along with five other rare works from Benin collected at the same time.”

By SaharaReporters, New York