By Simpson Global Media News Desk
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES — Three historic Nigerian artworks spanning the ancient Ife and Benin traditions are set to go on long-term display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York following a new agreement with Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM).
The agreement, announced on September 21, provides for the works to be displayed at The Met for 25 years, with an option for extension, while also making them available for research and scholarly study.
4PHOTO CAPTION: Three Nigerian masterpieces — an Ife terracotta horse head, an Edo commemorative portrait and an Edo queen-mother figure — that will be displayed at The Met's Michael C. Rockefeller Wing.
Three Works, Centuries of Nigerian History
The works include a Yoruba terracotta horse head dating from the 12th to 15th centuries, an Edo terracotta commemorative portrait from around the 16th century, and an Edo copper-alloy figure representing a queen mother from around the 18th century.
The horse head is associated with the medieval Ife Kingdom, whose sculptural traditions produced highly accomplished terracotta and brass works depicting human, animal and other subjects connected to royal life.
The commemorative portrait reflects the artistic traditions of the Benin Kingdom, while the queen-mother figure represents a particularly rare form of Benin court sculpture depicting an important historical woman.
From Private Collection to National Custodianship
The three works came from the private collection of Ceil Pulitzer, a philanthropist and collector of African art.
The Met facilitated their gift to the Friends of Nigeria's Cultural Heritage, an initiative established by the NCMM and hosted at Myriad USA. The arrangement is intended to transfer ownership of the works to the Nigerian national collection while allowing them to be exhibited internationally.
NCMM Director-General Olugbile Holloway described the initiative as important because it enables Nigerian antiquities previously held in private collections to be displayed at The Met and viewed by a broad international audience.
Nigerian Art in a Major International Gallery
The works will be installed in the Arts of Africa galleries of The Met's Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, which reopened following a major transformation.
The museum says the Nigerian sculptures will contribute to its presentation of the artistic traditions that developed in Ife and Benin and will be available for research by scholars.
The Met estimates that its museum receives about 6.3 million visitors annually, giving the works an extensive international audience during the loan period.
A Partnership That Goes Beyond Exhibitions
The agreement builds on a longstanding relationship between The Met and Nigeria.
In 2021, the two institutions formalised cooperation through a memorandum of understanding covering expertise exchanges and art loans. That partnership followed The Met's return of three works to Nigeria after provenance research — including two Benin plaques and a 14th-century Ife brass head.
The institutions have also been working on the digitisation and documentation of Nigerian museum collections, including photography, cataloguing standards, digital storage and visitor-education materials.
The Met says the programme began with a pilot project involving 100 works and has expanded through workshops, staff exchanges and infrastructure support for Nigeria's National Museum in Lagos.
Expanding Global Access to Nigerian Heritage
The latest agreement gives Nigerian cultural institutions an opportunity to have significant works studied and viewed internationally while maintaining their connection to Nigeria's national collections.
It also adds to a broader effort to document and preserve Nigerian heritage through cooperation between museums, researchers and cultural institutions.
For The Met, the partnership further strengthens the Nigerian component of its African art collection. For Nigeria, it creates another international platform through which the artistic achievements of Ife and Benin can be studied and encountered by audiences beyond Africa.
PHOTO CAPTION: Nigerian Ife and Benin artworks will be displayed in The Met's Michael C. Rockefeller Wing as part of a 25-year agreement with Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments.
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments.
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