“As custodians of these exceptional objects for the past 12 years, it is deeply gratifying to see them returned to their rightful owner,” he said in a statement.
The restituted works, a 16th- or 17th-century commemorative head made of terracotta and iron and a 16th-century bronze relief plaque, were plundered by British troops during an infamous 1897 raid. The British, out for revenge after a group of officials was slaughtered during a trade dispute, killed innumerable members of the kingdom and looted thousands of bronzes from the palace, bravura metal works that include figures, heads, and relief plaques.
The plunder quickly made its way to the art market and scores of museums across Europe and (to a lesser extent) the US. The bronzes, viewed by many as an exemplar of colonial-era excess, have become a cause célèbre in recent years, with many museums returning or pledging to return them to Nigeria, where the palace has called for their return. (The Benin kingdom is distinct from the modern country of Benin, which borders Nigeria.)
The collection has been particularly thorny for the MFA, which began displaying the works in a bespoke gallery after banking heir Robert Owen Lehman pledged some 30-odd bronzes to the museum in 2012. The museum has sought to reach an ethical ownership agreement with the palace in recent years. But according to the terms of its gift agreement with Lehman, the bronzes would formally enter the museum’s collection on a staggered timetable.
That put the MFA in the difficult position: It only had clear title to five of the artworks, so it was trying to negotiate an agreement with the palace for a collection the vast majority of which it did not yet fully own.
“It’s really not appropriate for us to bring them into the collection,” Victoria Reed, the museum’s senior curator for provenance, told the Globe earlier this year. “But that means that we do not own them, and therefore we don’t have control over them.”
But the museum’s efforts abruptly ran aground this spring, when Lehman, an award-winning filmmaker, retracted the gift, asking the museum to return 29 bronzes. The MFA complied, striking the Benin Kingdom Gallery in late April.
“We’re all sad in contemplating this outcome,” Teitelbaum said at the time. “There’s no moment of celebration or resolution that feels fully satisfying.”
Reached by phone Friday, however, he said Lehman’s retraction freed the museum’s hand.
“It opened up another set of conversations,” said Teitelbaum, who described the ceremony as a “powerful day.” “This is the result.”
The two restituted works can be traced to the 1897 raid, said Reed. The commemorative head is recorded on the London art market in 1899, when it was sold with other looted artworks from the kingdom. The relief plaque passed through the Crown Agent of the Niger Coast Protectorate (the British protectorate state, whose forces led the raid), who sold it in 1898.
The artworks soon entered England’s Pitt-Rivers Museum; Lehman acquired them years later when portions of the collection were sold.
“I am never going to say that we have 100 percent certainty about anything,” she said by phone from New York. “But based on the available evidence, How likely is it that these were not looted? I think very, very small.”
Prince Aghatise Erediauwa called the ceremony a great event, adding that the Benin royal court expected other museums “to do the right thing.”
The “MFA has joined in showing the world that the restitution of looted heritage works is not at the pleasure of whoever is holding them,” he said via WhatsApp. “It is the ethical and legal thing to do.”
Dr. Arese Carrington, a member of the MFA’s board of advisers, orchestrated the transfer. Following the ceremony, Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments plans to take possession of the bronzes and deliver them to Omo N’Oba Ewuare II, Oba, or king, of Benin.
Reed is still researching the provenance of the three bronzes that remain in the museum’s collection. She said that while they can be traced to the American and European art markets in the second half of the 20th century, it remains unclear when and how they left Africa.
“There are large gaps in their provenance,” she said. “We’re going to try to fill” them.
Malcolm Gay can be reached at malcolm.gay@globe.com. Follow him @malcolmgay.