Sale of sacred statues riles Black Lives Matter campaigners

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By THOMAS ADAMSON

PARIS (AP) — A pair of sacred statues that a Nigerian museum commission and protesters claimed were looted during the country’s 1960s civil war fetched 212,500 euros ($239,000) at auction in Paris on Monday.

The Igbo statues were sold by the Christie’s auction house, which defended the sale and said the artworks were legitimately acquired.

A Princeton scholar, Chika Okeke-Agulu, alongside Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments, raised alarm earlier this month that the objects were looted during the Biafran war in the late 1960s. The war saw more than 1 million people die, many of starvation, trying to create a state for the Igbo people. The Igbo are one of Nigeria’s largest ethnic groups.

Okeke-Agulu, who is Igbo, said the objects were taken through “an act of violence” and shouldn’t be sold. An online petition with the hashtags BlackArtsMatter and MyHeritageMatters collected more than 3,000 signatures demanding the auction be halted.



In this undated photo issued by Christie's auction house, two Igbo statues on display. The pair of sacred statues, that a Nigerian museum commission and protesters claimed were looted during the country's 1960s civil war fetched 212,500 euros ($239,000) at auction in Paris on Monday, June 29, 2020. Christie's auction house, which defended the sale and said the artworks were legitimately acquired. (Christie's via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/1cd41ca970d1e7dd2b9335c8ea6055b1

[keithbvadu2]

1. "legitimately acquired" - Then it should be easily proven.

[Dem2theMax]

2. Exactly.

Prove it, or return them. It's quite simple.

[MichMan]

3. if the 3000 petitioners had each contributed an average of $75 each they could have bought them