Let’s talk looting bitch. Benin 1897

Artifacts of great historical significance ( & commercial value ) were looted, auctioned off, and taken to the British museum in London (they’re still there).

Benin’s walls were once the largest earthworks created in the pre-mechanized era and were estimated to be four times longer in total than the Great Wall of China. Little evidence of these structures remains following destruction at the hands of the British

Beyond the theft of these items, we witness the theft of the land. The looting was followed by the annexation of Benin and other neighbouring towns by the British, the colonisation of the territory and everything that has followed since. #BlackLivesMatter

Art from Benin was copied and the style ‘assimilated’ into the art of many European artists, it’s influence was integral to the early formation of modernism in Europe.