Mexico Has Repatriated a Rare Yoruba Sculpture to Nigeria. But Was It Actually Just a Cheap Knockoff?

The government of Mexico
repatriated a rare bronze sculpture to Nigeria last week after it
had been illegally smuggled out of Africa. But now experts say the sculpture, thought to
be a 1,500-year-old relic of the Yoruba people, was only a cheap
knockoff. 

“I confirm that object is a
fake, and of the worst quality,” Julien Volper, a curator at the
Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium,
told The Art Newspaper. “You can find a lot
of the same type [of objects] on eBay. This story is ridiculous,
and a shame for Mexico.” The country’s National Institute of Anthropology and History
returned the work in a ceremony in
Cuauhtémoc on February 25. 

The object was originally
thought to hail from the ancient city of Ife, now located in the
state of Osun. It was seized by customs at Benito Juárez
International Airport in Mexico City as the buyer attempted to
smuggle it in. 

“The sculpture and its
provenance were authenticated by experts and agencies of both
countries, with the participation of specialists from the National
Institute of Anthropology and History,” read a statement released
by the Mexican government.

Speaking at the ceremony,
Mexico’s undersecretary of foreign affairs Julián Ventura said his
country has ramped up repatriation efforts in hopes of
strengthening diplomatic ties with countries around the
world. 

“For Mexico, the recovery of
illegally stolen cultural property is a priority,” Ventura said.
“We oppose the illegal commercialization of archaeological pieces,
an important cause of the impoverishment of the cultural heritage
of the nations of origin, since it undermines the integrity of
cultures and, therefore, of humanity.”

But for others, Mexico’s gesture
was an overly rushed attempt to join in on the African Art
restitution trend. 

“This demonstrates once again
the haste with which governments handle the ‘fashionable’ issue of
restitution, disregarding legal, historical facts,” Yves-Bernard
Debie, a Brussels-based lawyer who practices in cultural trade,
told the
Art
Newspaper.

Neither Volper nor the National
Institute of Anthropology and History responded to requests for
comment. 

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Nigeria. But Was It Actually Just a Cheap Knockoff? appeared
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