Christie's Paris sells Sacred Nigerian Statues Looted During The Biafran War

                         Calls for 'looted artefact' auction to be scrapped

Christie's, Paris, has sold 2 sacred Nigerian statues on Monday which were looted from Nri-Awka, Eastern Nigeria. The sale went ahead despite opposition from scholars and Nigerian Heritage Societies. The statutes were sold for $239,000. 

Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu of Princeton University argued that Jacques Kerchache a known collector of African Art who owns the collection exploited the Nigeria Civil War for his own gain. In his Instagram he stated:  

"In a 2017 op-ed article in the New York Times, I wrote about widespread looting of art from Eastern Nigeria during the Biafran War (1967-70), and that my mother still mourns the overnight disappearance of countless alusi (sacred sculptures) from communal shrines in my hometown, Umuoji, in Anambra State. These art raids from all indications were sponsored by dealers and their client collectors mostly based in Europe and the US."......

                                       img_1930_selfportrait_03182016_bw.jpg

"Mr. Kerchache acquired these sculptures in the Nri-Awka area (a half-hour drive from my hometown) during the darkest years of the Biafran War.
Dear Christie's, let’s be clear about the provenance of these sculptures you want to sell. While between 500,000 and three million civilians, including babies like me, were dying of kwashiorkor and starvation inside Biafra; and while young French doctors were in the war zone establishing what we now know as Doctors Without Borders, their compatriot, Mr. Kerchache, went there to buy up my people’s cultural heritage, including the two sculptures you are now offering for sale. I write this so no one, including Christie's and any potential buyer of these loots from Biafra, can claim ignorance of their true provenance. These artworks are stained with the blood of Biafra’s children."
#christies #warloots #biafranwar

There was also an online petition to stop the sale which was signed by 3,300 people, despite all these opposition Christie's sold it.

 


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