Benin glorious treasures.

Last month, an extraordinary exhibition opened in Paris. Entitled "Benin--Five Centuries of Royal Art and running until January 2008, it gathers together some of the finest antiquities originating from the City of Benin. It has also awakened the debate surrounding the European plunder of Africa's heritage. Stephen Williams reports.

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Described as the most important exhibition of African arts to have been mounted in many years, Benin--Five Centuries of Royal Art draws together 280 priceless artefacts from the collections of the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Vienna, the Ethnologisches Museum-Staatliche Museum in Berlin, the British Museum in London, and loans from the current Royal House of Benin as well as the National Commission for Museums and Monuments in Nigeria.

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This seminal exhibition illustrates the culture and history of one of Africa's greatest empires through the bronzes, ivory sculptures and other items, including maps, manuscripts, and travel journals on display.

Hosting this extraordinary exhibition is the Musee du Quai Branly. Nestled alongside the River Seine that runs through Paris, and in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, the Musee du Quai Branly has been described as the "presidential legacy" of the former French president, Jacques Chirac.

The idea of French presidents sponsoring architectural "grands projets" is not new. The late Presidents Georges Pompidou and Francois Mitterand both left their imprints--the former the Pompidou Centre which exhibits contemporary arts, the later the Arche de La Defense and also the Louvre Pyramid.

It has been rumoured that the current president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is already contemplating his legacy--creating the world's largest sculpture park on the site of a disused Renault factory on Ile Seguin, an island in the River Seine less than five kilometres west of the Musee du Quai Branly.

But Chirac's choice of project reflected his own interests. He is one of the world's foremost collectors of what are termed 'ethnological' artefacts (principally from the developing world) and asked the French architect, Jean Nouvel, to design the Musee du Quai Branly to house the nation's collection of ethnological treasures. It opened in June 2006.

As the museum's own catalogue points out, the royal treasures of Benin occupy a hugely important place in the whole spectrum of sub-Saharan African arts. France has never before exhibited this number and variety of treasures from the City of Benin, and the French public and many visitors to the French capital have flocked to see it since the exhibition opened last month.

The Benin Empire, which was located in southwest Nigeria (and not to be confused with the modern nation state called Benin, formerly Dahomey), has long been recognised for the importance of the exquisite bronze casts and ivory sculptures it produced between the 16th and 19th centuries. They are, quite simply, some of humanity's most precious historical treasures--making the debate over their controversial provenance an even more vital issue.

Understanding the historical context of this exhibition helps bring the priceless artefacts to life. The Benin Empire, an important element of the greater Yoruba dynasty, was already a powerful entity before developing a flourishing trade with the Portuguese, following the arrival of the mariner, Afonso d'Aveiro, in 1486, the first known European visitor to Benin City.

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As a result of this contact, the focus of Benin's commerce shifted away from trans-Sahara routes to European trade via the Gulf of Guinea coast. Within a century, peppers from Benin were found in the "seasoned" dishes served in wealthy European homes.

Magnificent ivory salt cellars, carved by Benin's court artisans, were also prized by the European nobility. And soap from Benin City was also highly sought after, so much so that a ban was placed on its import in the 16th century to protect Portugal's own soap industry.

This was not one-way trade, though. In return for the peppers, ivory, soap and later slaves and other goods, the King of Benin--known as the Oba--received bronze manilas, used by the Portuguese as a trading currency. These supplied local bronze workers with their raw material.

The Oba could also recruit Portuguese mercenaries to help fight wars of conquest against neighbouring kingdoms. This meant that the Benin court could attract craftsmen and their skills from other kingdoms, notably Ife, Owu, Ijebu, etc.

But the Oba declined to embrace Christianity when the Portuguese offered to supply muskets in exchange for converting to their faith. He also demonstrated a certain diplomatic sophistication by banning, on pain of death, the mining and use of gold.

He realised what the discovery of gold would mean, seemingly aware of the carnage Europeans unleashed in the New World (the Americas) due to gold fever. Nevertheless, the Kingdom became wealthy through contact with Europeans, who they considered the messengers of the gods, and soon Benin became pre-eminent in West Africa.

Shortly after d'Aveiro first made contact, a new monarch ascended the throne of Benin. His name was Oba Eisege and he was to rule for almost half a century. He made his mother, Idia, a trusted advisor--a tradition his successors followed. He also started commissioning bronze castings and set up a royal bronze casters' trade guild as well as royal ivory and wood carving brotherhoods.

The Empire's output was staggering both in quantity and quality, matching the sheer scale of Benin City, believed to have been comprised of at least 5,000 miles of earthworks, moats and defensive walls comparable to the Great Wall of China.

Within the city, contemporary accounts record 30 long broad thoroughfares, large well built houses and extensive royal compounds and palaces within which the artisans produced their wares.

These artisans worked almost exclusively for the Benin royal family. They were controlled by the Iwebo, courtiers who were responsible for the Oba's finery and personal effects. Bronze workers and ivory sculptors as well as weavers, tailors and leather workers are just a few of the brotherhoods directed by the Iwebo.

Bronze, like coral and ivory, was specifically associated with royalty. Much of the bronze output was used in religious rites that paid homage to the ancestral royal spirits, and the various heads, rather than being representations, were used as links between the known world and that beyond by being placed on the shrines of ancestors.

Symbolic animals such as the leopard, associated with the Oba, and the cockrel, associated with the Queenmother, probably served the same purpose, while familiar figures such as court jesters and even models of royal palaces were also produced.

The famous Benin bronze plaques, some historians suggest, served as replicas of the pages of European books. At the end of the 17th century, the wooden columns of the Royal palaces were adorned with these plaques that both illustrated sacred rituals and also recorded specific historical events such as the arrival of Europeans. They go some way to record the political challenges that the Oba had to deal with.

Some of these plaques were, at some point, abandoned and when the British forces led by Admiral Rawson entered Benin City in 1897 to plunder the palaces, they were found in a storehouse. So the popular legend that all these priceless antiquities were ripped away from the palace columns, resulting in the apparent damage, appears to be, in part at least, a myth. But the British forces carried away over 2,800 items from Benin City; that is 10 times the amount of artefacts on show at the Musee du Quai Branly. They also exiled the Oba to Calabar and, as they left the city, compounded their plunder with an act of almost unbelievable vandalism. They set the palaces alight.

The looted artefacts were taken to London and shortly afterwards sold at auction. As a result, they are still held in major British, German and Austrian museum collections.

Today, the question of their provenance and the possibility of their overdue return to the continent is obscured by various arguments. Some suggest enough time has gone by to ignore the "inconvenient matter" of their rightful ownership. They also ask to whom the objects should be returned--to the modern Nigerian state, the heirs of the royal family, or to a particular museum or institution?

Furthermore, the apologists argue, Africa does not have the facilities to ensure these artefacts can be safely preserved and securely exhibited, nor ensure that they will not be misappropriated.

But none of these arguments can override an historic fact: These precious items are stolen goods. It cannot even be argued that they are the spoils of war--no war was declared by the British before they carried away these treasures.

While many will marvel at the splendour of this exhibition in Paris, it is sobering to consider just how many of the visitors to the Musee du Quai Branly will give the rightful ownership of these priceless exhibits a second thought.