Commemorative Head of an Oba (King)
- L9
Tempus Fugit: Time Flies, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 15-December 31, 2000.
The Power of Bronze: Royal Sculpture from the Kingdom of Benin, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY, November 21, 2004-February 13, 2005, no. 3.
Kingdom of Benin, 16th century-1897 [1];
Purchased from British troops returning from Benin in Las Palmas, Tenerife, Canary Islands, by William (d. 1928) and Annie (d. 1910) Pilkington, Birmingham, England, 1897 [2];
By descent through the Pilkington family, 1897-1987;
Purchased from the Pilkington heirs, through L & R Entwistle and Co., Ltd., London, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1987.
NOTES:
[1] This Commemorative Head was one of thousands of objects removed from the Kingdom of Benin during the British colonial occupation, which occurred during the reign of Oba Ovonramwen (Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, b. ca. 1857-d. ca. 1914). Many of these objects were removed by British soldiers and brought to the United Kingdom, where some entered British museums. Others were sold by the British government or in private sales.
[2] Provenance as provided by Roberta Entwistle, Director, L & R Entwistle and Co., Ltd., Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.
Ross E. Taggart, George L. McKenna and Marc F. Wilson, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 2, Art of the Orient, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 240-41, (repro.).
Calendar of Events (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) March 1988: 1, 2, (repro).
Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), 230-31, (repro.).
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 84, (repro.).
Joyce M. Youmans, “African Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,” African Arts 33, no. 4 (Winter 2000), 43, 48, (repro.).
Marie-Thérèse Brincard, ed., The Power of Bronze: Royal Sculpture from the Kingdom of Benin, exh. cat. (Purchase, NY: Neuberger Museum of Art, 2004), 16, (repro.).
Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 243, 245, (repro.).
