Memorial head of an oba

In the kingdom of Benin, which lay in the territory of today’s Nigeria, commemorative heads like this one were cast in brass and placed on altars to honour deceased rulers. This example shows the king adorned with the typical symbols of royal power: a cap-like crown and a high collar of coral necklaces. The size and wall thickness of the works increased over the 18th and 19th centuries, as the heads took on an additional use as the basis for large elephant tusks carved with decorative motifs. In 1897 Benin was attacked and annexed by Great Britain under a pretext. In this plundering of the kingdom, many such commemorative heads and other objects were taken from the royal palace and sold on the art market, ultimately finding their way into ethnological museums and collections around the world.