MFA Free Admission

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), announced today that it will close its Benin Kingdom Gallery on April 28. The space opened in 2013 after the Museum accepted a promised gift from Robert Owen Lehman of his collection of West African works from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Lehman—who remained the lender of the objects while they were displayed at the MFA—pledged to give them to the Museum over time. The Museum and Lehman have now agreed to rescind the pledge and return the loaned objects to Lehman. Prior to the gallery’s closure, the MFA will offer free general admission for all visitors on the evening of April 24 from 5 to 10 pm. Artists from the Benin Kingdom, located in present-day Nigeria, created bronze and ivory masterpieces that were commissioned by the oba (king). In 1897, British troops invaded Benin City, occupied the palace, exiled Oba Ovonramwen, and looted approximately 4,000 objects from his treasury. Many works in the Lehman Collection, which was formed in the 1970s and 1980s through purchase at public auction and from dealers, can be traced to the attack on Benin in 1897. Between 2012 and 2020, Lehman donated a total of five Benin Kingdom objects that are now part of the MFA’s collection. While the remaining works from the pledge are being returned to Lehman, several of the objects in the Museum’s collection will go on view in late June in the Art of Africa Gallery. The MFA continues to seek a resolution regarding the ownership and display of the Benin Kingdom works in its collection.

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