Metropolitan Museum of Art Strikes a Deal with Nigeria for Long-Term Loan of Three Major Artworks

Three major artworks from Nigeria will be on long-term display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in a partnership with the African nation. The artworks, which the museum describes as masterworks, will be on loan to the museum for a 25-year term with the possibility of extension. They will be placed this month in the museum’s recently remodeled Michael C. Rockefeller wing, which ARTnews’s Alex Greenberger deemed a “masterpiece.”

The pieces were formerly in the collection of artist and philanthropist Ceil Pulitzer, who married into the family that established the Pulitzer Prizes. The arrangement allows the works to stay at the museum, with which Pulitzer has a longstanding relationship, while not entering the institution’s collection. Instead, Pulitzer gave them to the Friends of Nigeria’s Cultural Heritage, which was established by the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM). Established in 1943, NCMM manages 53 museums and other cultural institutions nationwide, along with 65 national monuments and two world heritage sites.

As the New York Times reports, there were no questions about the legality of the works’ sale, and no suggestion that they had been stolen. But in an era when museums are often called upon to repatriate works that were either looted or taken from their home countries under questionable circumstances, the provenance was “not quite strong enough for the museum to add the works to its collection.”

Ranging in date from 12th to 18th century, the works come from the ancient Ife civilization and the court of Benin. One piece, Head of a Horse (12th to 15th century), is a Yoruba terracotta, created by the artists at the medieval city-state of Ile-Ife, who produced hundreds of sculptures of humans, animals, and supernatural subjects during that time period. The second work, an Edo terracotta, Commemorative Portrait from the Benin Kingdom (ca. 16th century), memorializes a figure of status and was hand modeled by a member of the royal brass casters guild. The third, an Edo copper alloy, Figure Representing a Queen Mother from the Benin Kingdom (ca. 18th century), is a rare portrait of a historical woman, likely one who held that title in the 17th or 18th century.

“Historical and contemporary Nigerian art holds a place of distinction within the Met’s collection and has gained renewed significance following last year’s reopening of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing,” said Met director Max Hollein in press materials. “This innovative collaboration will help to expand global appreciation of Nigerian art and further our understanding of Nigeria’s extraordinary cultural heritage, while supporting the goals of the NCMM.”

The museum has a longstanding partnership with Nigeria, beginning with the 1980 exhibition “Treasures of Ancient Nigeria,” which included 100 of the country’s artistic treasures; the museum describes it as “among the earliest presentations of these ancient traditions to US audiences.” The Met and NCMM inked a memorandum of understanding in 2021, articulating a shared commitment to future exchanges of expertise and art, including reciprocal loans. That coincided with the museum following through on a promise to repatriate three looted objects from its collection to NCMM.

“This initiative is very important to us because it enables Nigerian antiquities in private collections to be displayed at the Met and seen by a wide and diverse audience,” said Olugbile Holloway, director general of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, in press materials. “Our partnership with the Met is of tremendous value, and we look forward to even more opportunities to deepen and strengthen the relationship between our two institutions.”