# Plaque with Oba (King) or Chief > Igun Eronmwon (brass-casting guild) artists - ca. 1540-70 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/igun-eronmwon-guild/benin-plaque-oba-or-chief-met/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-14 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Igun Eronmwon (brass-casting guild) artists - **Date:** ca. 1540-70 - **Medium:** Brass, lost-wax (cire-perdue) cast in relief - **Dimensions:** H. 50.2 x W. 34.9 x D. 8.9 cm (19 3/4 x 13 3/4 x 3 1/2 in.) - **Object type:** Sculpture - **Period:** Edo, Court of Benin, Kingdom of Benin - **Current location:** Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, on view in Gallery 342, The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary A brass relief plaque, about 50 by 35 centimetres, showing a richly regaled chief or king holding a ceremonial wand, cast by the Igun Eronmwon guild of Benin City for the walls of the royal palace, most likely between about 1540 and 1570 under Oba Esigie or his son Oba Orhogbua. It was seized from the palace by British forces during the 1897 Punitive Expedition and entered the Western art market by a route the Museum's own published record does not describe. The dealer Klaus Perls and his wife Amelia owned it by 1991, when they gave it, with 152 other Benin objects, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.It has never been sold at public auction and has not been individually named in any restitution claim found in the sources consulted. Two other plaques from the same 1991 gift were returned to Nigeria in 2021 after Museum research established they had been stolen from Nigeria's own National Museum in Lagos after 1960; the Museum's published record for this plaque describes no comparable finding, and whether the same research question has been put to this specific object is not stated anywhere found.The plaque remains on view at the Met, one of roughly 180 Benin court works the Museum holds, the great majority from the same 1991 gift. Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments has requested the return of the wider Benin corpus since at least 2022, and a 2023 Nigerian government gazette naming the Oba of Benin, not the NCMM, as owner of returned works has since complicated further restitutions elsewhere. No announcement specific to this accession has been found. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **ca. 1540-ca. 1570** Oba Esigie (r. ca. 1517-50) or his son Oba Orhogbua (r. ca. 1550-70), Court of Benin `[documented]` (commission and manufacture) Per the Metropolitan Museum's own current catalogue dating. The precise dating of the whole plaque corpus is itself a live scholarly argument, set out in this record's narrative; ca. 1540-70 reflects Kathryn Wysocki Gunsch's 2018 revision of the older Fagg/Dark chronology, which the Museum's record now follows. - **ca. 1570-1897** By descent to Oba Ovonramwen (r. 1889-97), Benin City `[documented]` (descent within the royal palace) Per the Metropolitan Museum's own published provenance note for this accession. - **1897** Seized by British forces `[documented]` (looting) Taken from the Royal Palace during the British military occupation of Benin City in February 1897, per the Museum's own published provenance note and its wider account of the Punitive Expedition. - **1897-by 1991** Unknown `[unknown]` (gap) No owner, dealer, sale or date is recorded in any source found for this interval. The Museum's own provenance note moves directly from the 1897 seizure to Perls ownership 'by 1991,' and the 1992 catalogue entry for this exact plaque (no. 35, p. 133) adds no ex-collection or reference line. Two sibling plaques from the same 1991 gift are documented to have passed through the British Museum (1898-1950) and the National Museum in Lagos (1950-51) before an undocumented post-1960 exit from Nigeria; whether this plaque shared that route is not established either way in the sources consulted, and this record does not assume it did. - **by 1991-1991** Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, New York `[documented]` (private ownership, then gift) The Museum's provenance note establishes only that the Perls owned the plaque 'by 1991'; no acquisition date or seller is named. Klaus and Amelia (Dolly) Perls, dealers in modern European art, are recorded as having begun collecting Benin art in the 1970s. - **1991-present** Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York `[documented]` (gift and accession) Accessioned 1991.17.16, one of 153 Benin objects given by Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls in 1991. Exhibited in 'Royal Art of Benin from the Perls Collection,' Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 16 - September 13, 1992, and published as catalogue no. 35. On view in Gallery 342, The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, as of the date checked. ## Exhibitions - Royal Art of Benin from the Perls Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (January 16 - September 13, 1992), 1992 ## Literature - Kate Ezra, Royal Art of Benin: The Perls Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992), p. 133, no. 35. ## Open questions - How and when did this plaque leave British or European custody and reach Klaus and Amelia Perls? Neither the Metropolitan Museum's published provenance note nor Kate Ezra's 1992 catalogue entry names an owner, dealer, sale, or date between the 1897 seizure and the Perls' ownership 'by 1991.' - Was this plaque part of the 1950-51 British Museum transfer of twenty-six Benin objects to the National Museum in Lagos - the same transfer that included two other plaques from the identical 1991 Perls gift, which were later found to have left Nigeria illegally after 1960 and were returned in 2021 - or did it leave Europe by an entirely separate route? The Museum's own current record for this accession does not mention the British Museum or Lagos at all. - Does the figure represent Oba Esigie specifically? The identification rests on Barbara Blackmun's comparison to carved ivory altar tusks and the reading of her Benin informants; Blackmun herself cautions that an identical figure on a plaque and a tusk may carry different meanings, and the comparison remains an argued reading, not a documented one. - Where did this plaque hang on the palace pillars, and which plaques originally stood beside it? Kate Ezra's 1992 catalogue entry states that a fuller reading of the figure and his wand depends on knowing its neighbors in the original arrangement, information lost when the palace was stripped in 1897. - Has the Metropolitan Museum's remaining Benin holding - roughly 180 objects, most from the same 1991 and 1996 Perls gifts - been individually re-examined for the same post-1960 Lagos question that surfaced for two of this plaque's sibling objects? The Museum's June 2021 statement describes a provenance review conducted 'over the past year' but does not state its scope, and no later announcement of a further review has been found. - Will the Metropolitan Museum take any further action on its remaining Benin holdings, including this plaque, given the National Commission for Museums and Monuments' continuing requests, the unresolved 2023 dispute over whether the NCMM or the Oba of Benin holds legal title to returned works, and the disputed, currently closed state of the Edo Museum of West African Art following its disrupted November 2025 opening? No announcement naming this accession has been found as of the date of this record. ## Sources - [1] Metropolitan Museum of Art, public collection API record for object 316489 (accession 1991.17.16). - [2] Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'Plaque with Oba (King) or Chief,' object page, including the Overview, Provenance, Exhibition History and References tabs. - [3] Kate Ezra, Royal Art of Benin: The Perls Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992), including the introduction, the 'Palace Plaques' chapter essay, Klaus Perls' preface, and catalogue entry no. 35, p. 133 (this object) and no. 36, p. 134 (comparandum, accession 1990.332). - [4] Ellen G. Howe, 'Recovering the Brilliance of a Benin Bronze,' Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 1, 2022. - [5] Wikimedia Commons, file information for 'File:Plaque- Oba or Chief MET 1991.17.16.jpeg' and 'File:Plaque- Oba or Chief MET 1991.17.16 back.jpg' (LicenseShortName: CC0). - [6] Metropolitan Museum of Art object page narrative for accession 1991.17.16, covering the founding of Benin's royal dynasty, the Igun Eronmwon guild, the 1897 invasion and the 1950 transfer to Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments. - [7] Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'Bronze Casters of Igun Street, Benin City, Nigeria,' Africa's Cultural Landmarks series, May 31, 2025. - [8] Ellen G. Howe, 'Recovering the Brilliance of a Benin Bronze' (on the Horn Player, Met accession 1978.412.310), Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 1, 2022. - [9] J. Nevadomsky, review of Kathryn Wysocki Gunsch, The Benin Plaques: A 16th Century Imperial Monument, African Arts vol. 52, no. 3 (MIT Press, 2019), summarizing Gunsch's revised 30-45 year chronology against Fagg's and Dark's earlier dating. - [10] Metropolitan Museum of Art, press release, 'The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments Announce the Return of Three Works of Art to the Nigerian National Collections,' June 9, 2021. - [11] The Art Newspaper, 'The Met repatriates looted Benin works,' November 22, 2021. - [12] Metropolitan Museum of Art, Leonard A. Lauder Research Center, Modern Art Index Project, biographical entry for Klaus Perls. - [13] Barnaby Phillips, 'The Met ought to have returned two stolen Benin Bronzes years ago,' Apollo Magazine. - [14] Smithsonian Institution, newsdesk release, 'Smithsonian Returns 29 Benin Bronzes to the National Commission for Museums and Monuments in Nigeria.' - [15] The Art Newspaper, ''The Benin Bronzes are returning home': Germany and Nigeria sign historic restitution agreement,' July 4, 2022. - [16] The Art Newspaper, 'Who will museums partner with over Benin Bronzes now? ... latest Nigerian government announcement makes Oba owner of artefacts,' April 26, 2023. - [17] Wikipedia, 'Benin Dialogue Group,' consulted for the group's membership and its history of formal requests; flagged for replacement with the group's own primary statements where available. - [18] Wikipedia, 'Museum of West African Art,' consulted for the November 2025 opening dispute and current closure; flagged as a fast-moving news situation to be re-verified against primary Nigerian and museum-press sources. - [19] Museums Association, 'Digital Benin project unveils online platform,' November 2022. - [20] Digital Benin, catalogue record for Metropolitan Museum of Art accession 1991.17.16. - [21] Skowronek et al., 'German brass for Benin Bronzes: Geochemical analysis insights into the early Atlantic trade,' PLOS ONE, 2023, on the lead-isotope and trace-element analysis of manillas and Benin brasswork broadly. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. 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