National Gallery of Art Repatriates Fowl Sculpture to Nigerian National Collections in Joint Ceremony with Smithsonian Institution
Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art, delivered remarks at the ceremony held at the Smithsonians National Museum of African Art, saying The National Gallery of Art is pleased to work with the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments to repatriate this sculpture and return the remarkable work where it belongswith the people of Nigeria.
- Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art, delivered remarks at the ceremony held at the Smithsonians National Museum of African Art, saying The National Gallery of Art is pleased to work with the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments to repatriate this sculpture and return the remarkable work where it belongswith the people of Nigeria.
- Following years of research by the National Gallery staff into the provenance of the Fowl, the National Gallery of Arts Board of Trustees voted on May 7, 2020, to deaccession the sculpture.
- Subsequently, the National Gallery communicated its interest in repatriating the sculpture to the Oba of the Royal Court of Benin.
- The sculpture has been installed in the galleries of the National Gallery periodically and has been lent several times to the National Museum of African Art.