Benin Bronze Plaque
The Benin bronzes are the cast-brass plaques that once covered the pillars of the Oba's palace in the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now Nigeria, depicting the king, his warriors, chiefs and courtiers in high relief against openwork backgrounds. They were made by the guild of the Igun quarter using lost-wax casting, a craft reserved for the palace, and they record royal history, court protocol, the regalia of office and even the Portuguese visitors who came to the coast in the sixteenth century. In 1897 a British punitive expedition took the city, looted the palace and carried thousands of objec