Kennicott On The Met Museum’s Non-European Wing: Making The Case For Context

Kennicott On The Met Museum’s Non-European Wing: Making The Case For Context

To appreciate these works only as visual objects exacerbates the intellectual violence of decontextualization. The Met has responded to this by writing extensive object labels and wall texts, carefully parsed but unflinching even when subjects, such as headhunting, may make some visitors uncomfortable. – Washington Post

The Met’s Luminous New Rockefeller Wing Still Casts Some Shadows

Julian Lucas on Kulapat Yantrasast’s redesign of the Met’s galleries of colonial art, and on restitution efforts to get the museum to return bronzes looted from Benin.

Boston Museum Returns Artworks Looted in 1897 to Oba of Benin

NEW YORK CITY, USA — In a historic act of restitution, the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston, has formally returned two treasured works of art looted from the Benin Kingdom during the 1897 British punitive expedition to the Oba of Benin, His Royal Majesty Omo N’Oba Ewuare II. The handover ceremony took place at the Nigeria House in New York City on Sunday, June 29, 2025, attended by members of the Nigerian diplomatic corps, royal family represen…

100 looted Benin Bronzes returned

The Benin Bronzes were stolen from Africa during colonial times ART | AGENCIES | It took more than a century but they are finally home. The Netherlands have returned 119 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, nearly 130 years after they were looted by British colonial troops. This shipment is the largest physical return of Benin artefacts to Nigeria to date. The Netherlands had agreed to their transfer in February upon request from the Nigerian government. T…

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Have Daylong Celebration for the Reopening of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing with New Additions to the Wing and Celebrating Diversity in New York

Thousands of New Yorkers attended the celebration of the reopening of the Rockefeller Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday, May 30th. On the steps located on 5th Avenue and 85th Street, the MET had a massive celebration with performances and festivals that celebrated the countries that are displayed in the renovation of the 400,000 square feet gallery space on the museum’s south side. The Rockefeller wing, named after the Anthropol…