Benin, a country in West Africa, has blocked the sale of a royal artifact that was stolen by French forces over 100 years ago. The item, a traditional wooden scepter called a “recade,” was supposed to be auctioned off in Paris last Friday, but it was taken off the sale list just before the auction began.
This artifact originally belonged to King Behanzin, the last ruler of the Kingdom of Dahomey (now called Benin). The recade is an important symbol of royal power, representing the king’s authority. It had been taken by the French during their colonial rule over Dahomey, which lasted from the late 1800s until the country gained independence in 1960.
The auction was set to take place at the prestigious Hotel Drouot in Paris, but Benin’s government stepped in and requested that the scepter be removed from the auction. The French Ministry of Culture then instructed the Millon auction house to pull the item from the list. Despite this, the auction house said the recade was still available for sale, though not through the planned auction.
The controversy surrounding the scepter’s sale sparked anger in Benin. Marie-Cecile Zinsou, president of the Zinsou Art Foundation, criticized the auction and called for the recade’s return to Benin, pointing out that it had been taken by colonial forces without permission.
Benin and France have had a long-standing debate over the return of stolen cultural artifacts. A report commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron revealed that over 90,000 African artifacts, many taken during the colonial period, are still in French museums. Among these, around 46,000 are held at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris. In 2020, France passed a law allowing the return of some of these items, and in 2021, Benin’s president traveled to Paris to retrieve 26 items, including a large throne that had also been taken from King Behanzin’s palace in the 1800s.
However, progress on returning more artifacts has slowed, especially after opposition in the French National Assembly delayed the passage of the law needed to make these returns official.
The debate over these artifacts is part of a larger movement across Europe to return items that were taken from former colonies. This year, the UK returned gold artifacts to Ghana, 150 years after they were stolen from the country’s king.
The controversy surrounding the sale of the royal scepter shows how the issue of cultural restitution is still a sensitive and unresolved topic between former colonial powers and the countries they once ruled. Benin’s strong reaction to the auction is a reminder of the ongoing struggle to reclaim cultural treasures that were taken without consent.
