This project is funded by the European Union
November 2020
Culture in ruins The illegal trade in cultural property Case study: Nigeria
Julia Stanyard and Rim Dhaouadi
Summary
This case study forms part of a set of publications on the illegal trade in cultural property across North and West Africa, made up of a research paper and three case studies (on Mali, Nigeria and North Africa). The research in this case study focuses on the Nok terracottas, the changing market for these artefacts and the regional trade routes. Attention is also given to the ambiguous role of the Artefact Rescuers Association of Nigeria (ARAN) in this trade. Key findings
• Nok objects started being taken from Nigeria in the early 1980s. • In the late 1980s, several major thefts took place from museums and some were known to have been facilitated by museum staff. • The market peaked in the early 1990s and there is a decline in supply and demand for Nok objects at present. • Looting of Nok sites, however, continues and is driven by economic need, a lack of awareness of the laws surrounding antiquities, local communities not identifying with ancient cultural resources, and specific religious beliefs that archaeological sculptures need to be destroyed. • Looting has shifted from the northwest and north-central states to the southern part of the Nok region in response to rising insecurity and conflict. • Changes in demand for Nok objects are in some measure due to the increased value being placed on certifiable provenance of archaeological objects. CASE STUDY CASE • Local and regional intermediaries operating in urban hubs in Nigeria and neighbouring countries play a persistent and important role in the illegal market. Introduction wider context of Nigerian cultural property trafficking. Nigeria’s diverse cultural and archaeological heritage has long been under threat – historically through The fieldwork for this study brought to light the colonial thefts and currently through the present-day emergence of new dynamics in the market for Nok illicit trade. objects. These included, in particular, institutional corruption, the role of local and regional The Nok terracottas are one of the object types intermediaries trading in looted objects and changes identified as ‘at risk’ in Nigeria by the International in demand for Nok objects on the international Council of Museums.1 The Nok culture occupied the art market. Bauchi Plateau region of central Nigeria between around BC 500 and AD 200.2 The Nok sites provide some of the earliest evidence of iron-working south of the Sahara as well as some of the earliest examples of terracotta figurative sculpture, Legal and institutional context predominantly taking the form of stylised human Nigeria’s Museums and Monuments Act (1979) and animal figures. While little is known about the stipulates that: use of the figurines in their original contexts (in part due to the damage inflicted by looting), the • An antiquity is, among other things, an object sculptures are esteemed for their aesthetic quality, made before 1918 of historical, scientific or age and importance to the wider narrative of African artistic interest and currently or previously 3 history. Recent archaeological investigations of the used in a ceremonial or traditional context. Nok have described the ‘alarming and frustrating • It is an offence to export an antiquity without reality’ that the vast majority of sites have been the requisite export licence granted by the 4 destroyed, in part or entirely, by looting. National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) – such licences are This study focuses on the illegal trade in these granted only in the context of temporary terracottas.5 Fieldwork was conducted where Nok export of museum objects for exhibition sites are located in Abuja, Jos and the region in overseas and scientific research.6 between in June 2019. This work included interviews • It is an offence to carry out unlicensed with: excavations.7 • Archaeologists As the primary authority dealing with cultural • Representatives of Nigeria’s National Commission property, the NCMM is responsible for: for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) • Members of the police force at various levels of • Managing Nigeria’s museums, historical seniority monuments and archaeological sites. • Customs officials • Dealing with issues of illicit artefact trading • Security force members and collaborating with the relevant authorities • Most importantly, individuals involved in trading such as police and customs to ensure that law art and antiquities, including legally protected enforcement can recognise and investigate Nok terracottas, both historically and currently instances of cultural property trafficking. • Working towards the restitution of objects Interviews were also conducted remotely with from overseas. archaeologists and antiquities dealers based in • Conducting outreach programmes to educate transit countries and art market destination countries communities about the value of cultural in the European Union (EU) and the United States heritage and the harm of illegal trade. (US). • Proactively collecting cultural objects and leading archaeological and ethnographic Focus on the Nok region provided a regional frame research.8 for the study. It aimed to investigate the dynamics of illicit trade in one particular kind of object within the
2 Culture in ruins: The illegal trade in cultural property, Nigeria Figure 1: Map of the Nok cultural region Figure 2: A Nok terracotta head
CHAD NIGER NIGER Sokoto Sokoto Borno Katsina Kebbi Jigawa Zamfara Kano Yobe Maiduguri N ige r Kano Bauchi R . Zaria N Gombe BENIN o Kaduna Biu Niger k Bauchi C u Kaduna Gombe l Abuja t Jos u re Adamawa Kwara Capital a r . e e R Territory nu a e Plateau B Oyo ABUJA Nasarawa CAMEROON Ogbomosho Nasarawa Taraba Ekiti Kogi Ibadan Osun Benue Ogun Ondo Edo Enugu Lagos Benin City Cross Lagos Onitsha Ebony Rivers Anambra Delta N Warri Imo
Abia Gulf of Guinea Rivers Calabar Bayelsa Port CAMEROON Harcourt 0 125 Akwa Ibom km © S Ballard (2020)
Historical dynamics: the development of an illegal market Source : Julia Stanyard In the early 1990s, a new trend took hold of the international art market. In Paris, Brussels and New York,9 art dealers were gambling on a previously little- would hold and increase its value.14 This frenzied known form of ancient African art. One dealer active in commercial interest had a dramatic impact on looting the US market at the time described a marketplace full in the Nok region. of newly-excavated Nok and Katsina terracotta material: ‘They [the importers] put the heads into metal trunks… so tight that nothing moved. They placed them in like The first thefts and illegal rocks in a stone wall.’10 This was the ‘boom period’ for Nok terracottas, which still shapes the market today. exports of Nok terracottas were The first thefts and illegal exports of Nok terracottas reported in the 1960s were reported in the 1960s, following the accidental discovery of Nok terracotta pieces in the course of artisanal tin mining in the region. Subsequently, Bernard During this period, a small yet influential group of Fagg, a British archaeologist, published descriptions, international antiquities dealers from Switzerland,15 images and research into the art form.11 During the next Belgium, South Africa, Germany, the United Kingdom two decades, sites were looted with increasing (UK), the US, and to a lesser extent Japan and China,16 frequency and dealers and collectors observed ‘the first would either travel directly to Jos (the closest major city Noks coming out [of Nigeria] during the early 1980s.’12 to the Nok region) or operate remotely from Abuja, Lagos and neighbouring countries including Ghana, These early finds generated a great deal of interest Togo, Benin and Niger. These all formed important among specialist dealers based in Europe and the national trading hubs for art and cultural objects. US.13 In the absence of contextualising information about the objects, their meaning and their legality, These dealers would, in turn, operate through agents, antiquities dealers began to invest speculatively in Nok reportedly often from neighbouring countries such as material on the assumption that, given its qualities, it Niger, Ghana, Togo and Benin. The agents would cross
November 2020 3 borders to archaeologically rich regions, negotiate prices member described the fight against corrupt elements with leaders of local digging teams on behalf of their within the institution as an ‘internal war.’25 Several clients and return to deliver the objects to their international dealers reported viewing, and in one international clients or transport pre-selected objects to instance buying, objects on the market that were destination countries on behalf of clients.17 known to have been recently repatriated from European countries and had subsequently clearly been More proactive West African networks would export stolen from museum storerooms.26 objects directly to destination markets in the hopes of soliciting buyers there. Contacts between international The entry of looted Nok objects onto antiquities markets buyers and agents were reportedly established through was followed by an influx of fakes by the mid-1990s. In legal and contemporary art and craft markets in response, it became necessary for buyers to authenticate neighbouring countries. Lomé (Togo) and Cotonou objects using thermoluminescence testing.27 However, (Ghana) were identified by interviewees as key centres more sophisticated forgery techniques were developed and transit points for trading in archaeological objects to bypass this testing – by incorporating genuine, but and cultural goods from across the region. worthless, fragments of terracotta into a new piece. This
From a previously ad-hoc and disorganised local trade, necessitated even more costly forms of testing to more powerful local intermediaries emerged in response determine an imitation. Fakes were reportedly entering to the demand and economic incentive, employing and the international market both from Nigeria and from 28 directing large teams of labourers to dig sites. One such networks based in transit and destination countries. intermediary informed us that, during these so-called boom years,18 he sometimes employed over a hundred The market today: new actors and labourers to dig an individual site. new dynamics Drivers and overlap with other illicit trades Some local intermediaries Looting of Nok sites is seen by archaeologists, the NCMM employ over a hundred and members of local communities as a critical, ongoing threat and the largest challenge to protecting Nigeria’s labourers to dig an individual site cultural heritage.
Foremost among the drivers behind the looting of Nok Archaeologist Patrick Darling has similarly described the sites is poverty within local communities.29 One local emergence of a handful of local intermediaries between dealer argued that there would always be a ready 1994 and 1995 who could reportedly marshal over a supply of diggers even if excavated objects can only be thousand diggers across the region.19 At the same time, sold ‘at a giveaway price’ as this nevertheless offers a the disorganised trade of ad-hoc diggers and chance means of income.30 sales continued, with local intermediaries serving as conduits for these other sources.20 Digging for terracottas is, and While reportedly never a major priority for police and state security forces,21 the intensive looting presented a has always been, closely major challenge and occasionally a violent threat to representatives of the NCMM attempting to protect integrated with illicit and archaeological sites. These problems arose as looting reportedly often took place either with the agreement artisanal mining or active involvement of local traditional leaders.22
This same period, between the late 1980s and the At the same time, many described how looting is not 1990s, was a time of crisis within the NCMM due to a generally seen as an illegal activity within communities, spate of major and occasionally violent museum and excavated objects are considered the property of the thefts,23 several of which were known to have been excavators.31 This is due both to a lack of awareness of the facilitated by museum staff.24 One former NCMM staff laws surrounding antiquities as well as local communities
4 Culture in ruins: The illegal trade in cultural property, Nigeria not identifying with or ‘owning’ ancient culture as their were killed.41 One dealer reported, ‘In Katsina, everything heritage and therefore seeing objects as an economic has stopped … Nok is not now coming anymore, because rather than cultural resource. The looting also has links to everybody is afraid of his life.’42 The risk of banditry and religion, as reportedly some Muslim and Christian groups terrorism has also deterred international buyers from tend to interpret figurative archaeological sculptures as visiting the country.43 idols and want to destroy or sell them.32 Other factors were also cited as suppressing the Digging for terracottas is, and has always been, closely international demand for Nok pieces. The massive influx integrated with illicit and artisanal mining. Artisanal of pieces in the early 1990s reportedly flooded the mining for tin and semiprecious stones (such as market, damaging the claims to rarity and exclusivity tourmaline) is a major illicit economy in the region.33 This upon which the ancient art market trades.44 The is, in part, because chance finds of terracottas can emerge subsequent increase in fakes harmed the Nok market,45 in the course of mining. The same labourers are reportedly decreasing trust and imposing the burden of expensive employed for both trades, while some intermediaries shift and time-consuming authenticity tests on buyers.46 their focus between mining to terracottas depending on Broader changes in culture and trading practices within which is most profitable at any given time.34 the international art market are also significant. In response to the mounting public pressure on dealers, Declining demand and barriers to supply auction houses and collectors to ensure that the market is not vulnerable to illicit trade, certifiable provenance While looting remains a significant problem, has become far more highly valued than in previous interviewees in the Nok region,35 transit countries36 and decades. Dealers now face more questions about the international art market hubs37 agreed that the market origin, collecting history and legal legitimacy of their has declined significantly since its peak in the early 90s. wares.47 One dealer explained, ‘If an American client While this may appear to be a benefit for Nigerian would say “What is the provenance?” and I say “I bought heritage, the reality is more complex, relating both to this from an African,” he will turn his back and he will changes in the local political economy of the Nok region show no interest at all anymore.’48 An increasingly and shifts in tastes, attitudes and collecting practices in restrictive legal landscape has reinforced this shift.49 the international art market.
On the supply-side of the market, local intermediaries emphasised that rising insecurity has played a significant The risk of banditry and role in curtailing the market. Nigeria’s northwest and north-central states have been affected by increased terrorism has deterred intercommunal violence between ethnic Hausa farmers international buyers and nomadic Fulani herdsmen. There has also been a dramatic surge in banditry, kidnappings and armed robbery in the area.38 Multiple military operations – across As object types widely known to have been illegally Katsina, Kaduna, Niger, Kano and Sokoto states – are being traded, Nok pieces garner particularly intense scrutiny undertaken in regions threatened by the conflict.39 As a and suspicion, to the extent that some dealers avoid result, site looting has reportedly become more focused on trading in Nok objects altogether. One dealer the southern part of the Nok region, in a shift away from commented, ‘These are sensitive, problematic pieces the more intense insecurity and violence further north.40 and I don’t need the hassle of dealing with pieces that may be looted or problematic.’50 Travel to the – sometimes very remote – rural locations of sites now poses greater risks for both illegal digging and Within the heated political landscape of discourse legitimate archaeological excavations. The highway relating to the restitution of African objects looted under between Jos, the nearest city to the Nok region, and colonial regimes, suspicions of dealing in modern looted Abuja is known as a particularly dangerous route for objects are perceived as being more damaging than in armed robberies and kidnapping. In 2016 a group of previous years.51 Dealers consistently expressed German archaeologists working in the region was frustration at what they saw to be a misguided debate targeted and two local men employed on the excavation about the restitution of colonial objects, which, in their
November 2020 5 view, poses an existential threat to a legal trade in established networks in Cameroon provide a major African cultural property. source of fake Nok objects, although the reasons for this being so are unclear. The criminal interests in protecting Intermediaries, craft markets and transit this value chain extend to the use of violence. An artist based in the Nok region was reportedly killed by artefact countries traffickers in Lomé for discussing the methods used in 57 Despite the combined decline of both supply and making replica Nok pieces for an academic study. demand for Nok objects, intermediary dealers operating in urban hubs in Nigeria and neighbouring countries The Artefact Rescuers Association of play a persistent and important role in the illegal Nigeria market. As in previous years, much of the dealing in legally protected items is mediated through and Key to any discussion of antiquities trading in Nigeria is alongside legal trading in art and traditional crafts. the role of the Artefact Rescuers Association of Nigeria (ARAN). During the fieldwork for this study, Nok materials were observed being offered openly at craft markets in Abuja. Despite prominent Nigerian archaeologist Zacharys Similar objects are reportedly on offer in Lagos, as well Gundu describing the organisation as ‘the head of the as in neighbouring countries.52 These markets also act as looting enterprise in Nigeria,’58 ARAN has received a key space for networking between potential buyers surprisingly little attention from previous research into and suppliers, providing a springboard from which other the illegal antiquities market.59 This research study deals can be done. However, the open market only suggests that ARAN, or at least elements of the accounts for one portion of the illicit trade, which is organisation, may be playing a central – and ambiguous otherwise conducted between established dealers and – role in the market in Nigerian objects. buyers in more closed settings. As one dealer put it: Officially, ARAN is a civil society organisation comprising Frankly speaking, artefacts [are] like a cartel business a nationwide network of artefact rescuers who buy … You can’t get it in a conventional market like this … cultural objects that would otherwise be illegally they know who are their contacts, they know who exported or destroyed. The organisation has arisen in are their collectors, they know where to take it to. tandem with the (unusual) policy of the NCMM to buy And you’ll be surprised, an artefact can be missing looted objects from antiquities dealers within Nigeria to here, in two weeks you see it in Berlin, in three weeks prevent them from being trafficked abroad. However, you see it in London. How did it get there?53 several archaeologists interviewed claim that the policy may actually be stimulating illegal trade.60 Intermediary dealers from neighbouring countries, such as Senegal, Cameroon and Benin,54 reportedly According to interviewees both within ARAN and the concentrate on particular regions based in part on NCMM, the museums previously dealt with antiquities linguistic and cultural ties between groups across dealers on an individual basis. However, over time, the borders. Trade with immediate neighbouring countries museums have established an exclusive relationship is facilitated by the greater ease of smuggling objects with ARAN in an attempt to create some form of over porous land borders rather than through airports governance and organisation between vendors. and seaports.55 Once outside the country, at regional According to ARAN members themselves, the hubs such as Cotonou and Lomé, dealers can trade organisation is comprised of a mixture of community Nigerian objects with greater legal freedom. This is leaders and former illegal antiquities dealers. The because these object types are not protected antiquities community leaders are ostensibly concerned with under the domestic legislation of those countries, and preserving the cultural heritage of Nigeria. The former can, therefore, be exported to destination markets, even illegal dealers, observing the decline of the with export licences from the transit country, with international market and under pressure from ARAN relative ease.56 leadership, decided to renounce illegal activities in Intermediaries in neighbouring countries also play an place of the financial incentives offered for objects by important role in introducing fakes onto the market. the NCMM. ARAN members described coming into International and Nigerian dealers are in agreement that violent conflict with established illegal dealers in the
6 Culture in ruins: The illegal trade in cultural property, Nigeria Nok region in its early years, before bringing them into The policy of buying objects from vendors and ARAN as the organisation itself: an organisation proved to be controversial within the NCMM as well as in the wider Nigerian archaeological We agreed that instead of fighting these illegal community. Some NCMM representatives argue that the dealers head on – because in the course of our arrangement is a pragmatic solution, given the paucity fighting we lost up to four members … we should of funds available to the museum and the reality of approach them and co-opt them, some of them who ongoing looting and illicit trade in regions with more are strong, into our association.61 pressing security and criminal threats.68 Members argue that through co-opting traffickers, However, the majority of NCMM representatives saw a ARAN’s leadership encourages them to pursue the fundamental contradiction between the responsibilities alternative, legitimised route of selling objects to the of the NCMM and the commercial interests of ARAN. NCMM. The NCMM is a public institution mandated with However, it appears that at least some members of protecting Nigeria’s cultural heritage and ARAN sells ARAN continue to trade illegally in protected cultural objects that have, inevitably, been illegally excavated 69 objects internationally, using the legitimacy and quasi- and removed from their archaeological context. institutional status offered by the organisation’s The emergence of ARAN reportedly forms part of association with the NCMM to do so with impunity. a wider context which has seen the decline in the During the fieldwork for this study, researchers activities of the NCMM. Previously, the NCMM conducted witnessed several ARAN members voluntarily offering to its own archaeological and ethnographic research to sell objects, either directly or via contacts.62 One source objects and build museum collections. However, member described engaging in illegal trade in recent it was widely acknowledged that this proactive research years, ‘conniving’ with customs authorities to transport has largely ceased due to consistent underfunding, objects across land borders and to purchase back opening up space for ARAN to assume the role of objects that had been seized, offering further objects sourcing objects instead.70 This has coincided with the that were available via a contact.63 decline in the international market, meaning some These ARAN members attempted to justify their antiquities dealers have exploited the retreat of the involvement in the illegal antiquities trade by placing NCMM from sourcing objects to forge their own space in 71 responsibility on the NCMM. They argue that the policy the domestic market in looted objects. of purchasing objects is dysfunctional. Due to consistent In sum, ARAN has become an organisation that seems underfunding, the NCMM has been unable to meet the to be occupying a role previously mandated to an arm of financial settlements negotiated with vendors, leaving the state, while simultaneously at least some members payments unmet, reportedly for several years. ARAN appear to be engaging in criminal activity. members argued that this has pushed some of their colleagues into illegal trade as another way of making a In interviews, some ARAN dealers also described livelihood from trading in antiquities.64 attempts by other members of the group to enforce protection over areas (including sites where objects Some NCMM representatives voiced suspicions about can be sourced) that they viewed as their ‘territory’, the illegal activities of certain ARAN members but sometimes through violent and corrupt means. denied that they had seen tangible evidence.65 Others were acutely aware of the problem but concerned about One ARAN vendor operating in the Nok region named exposing the issue.66 Still others claimed that some several villages in which he has local intermediaries who ARAN dealers would use the threat of trading their will collect and notify him of objects excavated there. objects in external markets to pressure the NCMM into Many of these villages map closely with archaeological agreeing to their asking prices through a collaborative surveys of the most intensively looted sites in the region. relationship. Alternatively, they claimed that some ARAN Other ARAN dealers also operate in the same area – dealers would use the museum’s policy as a means to through their intermediaries who collect objects on achieve a financial reward for objects of insufficient their behalf – with a self-described peaceful competition quality to trade on the international market.67 between them over accessing objects.
November 2020 7 However, these ARAN members described taking Some of the archaeologists interviewed described action against illicit dealers on whose behalf illegal Nok ARAN, in their own terms, as an organisation that bears excavations take place: certain similarities to organised crime.74
We ask police to arrest any non-ARAN vendors However, at the same time, it is unclear whether all who come to villages to buy objects and to seize ARAN members operating across Nigeria operate on the objects and give them to us, and then we give the same terms. For example, one dealer described them a fee. I know someone in every police station relatively cordial relations with non-ARAN antiquities in every village or someone in the village vigilante dealers engaged in illicit trade in urban-based craft community.72 markets, counting some of them as friends.75 This could suggest that the territorial disputes and violence against Using the police to ‘harass’ illicit dealers who travel non-members is limited only to sourcing objects in the to the villages from other regions or overseas was field. As this research study focused on the Nok region, described as a routine practice. Further conflicts we cannot speculate with certainty about dynamics between ARAN members and other illegal dealers were elsewhere in Nigeria. also mentioned. These conflicts were over the theft of objects and included occasional violent confrontations When approached for comment on the findings of this with communities from whom ARAN members were research, ARAN responded that they refute the claims attempting to collect objects.73 laid out here, and that, in fact, it is ARAN members who have attempted to stop the activities of illicit traffickers This study suggests that there is a clear need for further operating at sites and the country’s borders. Former examination of the role ARAN plays within the antiquities president of ARAN, George Agbo, speaking on behalf of trade. Some of the allegations revealed by our research the organisation, continued with this statement: about the activities of some ARAN members could be typified as bearing a resemblance to organised crime ARAN as a body have been commended for groups. These include territorial protection, group identity, its ambassadorial works by past and present membership defined in opposition to rival groups, governments of Nigeria. Some unscrupulous attempts to muscle out competition through the use of elements may hide under the guise of being ARAN violent tactics, links to police forces and local vigilante members to orchestrate illegalities. I was president of groups, involvement in illegal artefact trade and co-opting ARAN for eight years and I can tell you authoritatively and rivalling state institutions. that none of our members was ever found wanting for the period, rather, we made eleven arrests of Figure 5: Archaeologists in the Nok region illegal antiquity traffickers at that period. We are not carefully excavate Nok terracotta figurines on a a criminal organization as some people may have formal excavation portrayed, rather some people in NCMM that sees our association as usurping their rules have always challenged our existence as an association. Institutional capacity and current response to illicit trade
Interviews with current and former employees of the NCMM produced a stark picture of an institution in decline in recent years.76
In some cases, the lack of efficacy and capacity to implement the mandate of the NCMM was attributed to the museum leadership not effectively making the political case for allocating funds to support culture. This was described in connection with political appointees to the NCMM who have no expertise in cultural heritage. Others reported that because the museum sector is not Source: Peter Breunig
8 Culture in ruins: The illegal trade in cultural property, Nigeria revenue-raising, it is not valuable to the government By contrast, customs authorities do view the illegal within the broader context of declining economic trading of antiquities as within their mandate. conditions in Nigeria. They have dedicated resources and a focused officer working on the issue, they are engaged with Underfunding of museums, demoralisation of staff international organisations for information sharing and endemic corruption were cited as persistent and and capacity-building, and they have the authority connected issues, as museum employees with access to to conduct investigations and prosecutions into valuable objects are tempted to engage in illicit trade. illicit trade. According to one source with knowledge of the manner in which the NCMM works: However, customs officials also pointed out that, while there had been collaborations and knowledge Archaeologists are involved, ethnologists are involved, sharing with the NCMM in the past, this relationship curators are involved – those professionals that are is currently ‘not robust’ and no support is offered by permitted by the nature of their job to deal with the NCMM to train customs officials in identifying antiquities have the opportunity of doing great cultural objects. This adds to the existing challenges business with antiquities.77 of detecting and identifying archaeological objects The use of temporary export licences for museum and investigating the trafficking of objects through objects to be transported to exhibitions overseas was insecure regions where border control is widely 83 seen as a key opportunity for museum staff to sell compromised. objects illegally. The objects are ostensibly exported with There are other examples of heritage protection official permission, sold and then never returned to the being carried out with the support of academia and museum.78 This phenomenon is allegedly facilitated civil society groups. The Akwanshi stone monoliths and directed by corrupt actors at ‘the highest levels’ of are monumental stone sculptures that represent management who are believed to be immune from memorials to the ancestors. They are estimated investigation and suspicion.79 to be between 500–1 500 years old and are found Several interviewees suggested that whistleblowing exclusively in Nigeria’s Cross River state. These on corruption within the NCMM would be met with monoliths have recently been documented as being resistance and damage the whistle-blower’s career due widely looted. to the involvement of certain high-level individuals with This looting, which began in the 1970s in the an interest in the illicit trade.80 conflict and aftermath of the Biafran Civil War and is still ongoing today, sees the monoliths Museum employees with access trafficked via Cameroon to appear at galleries and leading museums in New York, Paris and Brussels.84 to valuable objects are tempted Collaborative work between the University of Calabar, the Trust for African Rock Art and the Factum Arte to engage in illicit trade Foundation has mapped locations of remaining monoliths, worked with communities and drawn attention to artefacts emerging on the international Interviews with several police officers at different market. levels of seniority suggest that illegal trade in cultural property is not seen as a priority, to the extent that it Conclusions is not considered to be part of the policing mandate.81 Insecurity and criminality in the region include terror Illicit trade presents an ongoing threat to the cultural threats, armed banditry, kidnapping and inter-ethnic heritage of the Nok region and more broadly, to violence. When set against the broad picture of this Nigerian heritage. It takes place along established and insecurity and criminality in the region, police officers long-standing regional trade routes, is facilitated by confirmed that anything constituting a threat to life corruption and lack of capacity within the NCMM and and citizen security is prioritised above any forms of is governed, at points, by intimidation and violence. illicit trade.82 This picture is complicated by the ambiguous role of
November 2020 9 ARAN, an important and unusual development in the • An independent review of the NCMM’s relationship illicit trade in Nigeria’s heritage. with ARAN and its activities.85 • Engagement and outreach to local communities The challenge for Nigeria lies in effectively countering must be sustained to document objects in situ this threat in the context of other pressing criminal and (where possible) and raise awareness of the harm of security challenges, and the economic stress under the illegal trade. which the NCMM is currently operating. While we • Although this was once regarded as a key part of found this economic stress to be a salient factor during the NCMM’s mandate, it has become increasingly our fieldwork in 2019, it can only have intensified unachievable due to a lack of funds.86 during the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. • Pursuing this work in partnership with other organisations, such as academic institutions and NGOs, Recommendations could be an innovative way of fulfilling this role.87 • Cultural authorities and law enforcement must Stakeholders outlined the following tangible steps collaborate in conducting targeted investigations.88 that can be taken to improve the response to the illicit Effective collaboration could, therefore, achieve a trade in antiquities in Nigeria: profound and lasting impact.
10 Culture in ruins: The illegal trade in cultural property, Nigeria Notes
1 ICOM, A Red List of African Cultural Objects at Risk, 10 Interview with US-based art dealer. 2000; ICOM, An Emergency Red List of West African See: B Fagg, 1977, London: Cultural Objects at Risk, 2016. The types of object 11 Nok terracottas, identified as ‘at risk’ (both officially in the International Ethnographica for the National Museum, Lagos; Council of Museums’ (ICOM) Red Lists and more Z Gundu, Looted Nigerian heritage: An interrogatory broadly, by local archaeologists and ethnographers) discourse around repatriation, Paper presented at the range across regions, cultures and eras: terracotta and Workshop on Issues of Restitution and Repatriations of bronze statues from the Ife region; Esie soap-stone Looted and Illegally Acquired African Objects in statues; terracotta and bronzes of the ‘Sao’ culture European Museums, University of Ghana, Legon, (which are found at sites in Nigeria, Cameroon and 13–14 December 2018; Personal correspondence with Chad); Nok terracotta sculptures; the famed Benin the author; Trafficking culture: Nok terracottas, bronzes; Calabar pottery; Akwanshi stone monoliths. 12 August 2012, https://traffickingculture.org/ encyclopedia/case-studies/nok-terracottas/. 2 Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, Nok Terracottas (500 BC–200 AD) 12 Interviews with multiple art dealers based in Europe, in Heilbrunn timeline of art history, New York: The the US and in West Africa, conducted remotely, June Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000, www.metmuseum. 2019. org/toah/hd/nok/hd_nok.htm. The date of the Nok culture is somewhat in dispute, as some radiocarbon 13 See: Musa Oluwaseyi Hambolu, Looting of Nok culture dating suggest an earlier beginning and end sites in Nigeria, in P Breunig, (ed.), Nok: African date than cited here. See P Breunig and N Rupp, sculpture in archaeological context, Franfurt: Africa An outline of recent studies on the Nigerian Nok Magna, 2014; CL Joy, The politics of heritage culture, Journal of African Archaeology, 2016, https:// management in Mali: From UNESCO to Djenne, doi.org/10.3213/2191-5784-10298. New York: Routeledge, 2012, 54.
3 See, for example: FJ Lamp, Ancient terracotta figures 14 Interview with a European art dealer in which they from Northern Nigeria, 2011, https://artgallery.yale.edu/ related an anecdote about a Brussels-based dealer sites/default/files/files/coll_af_bull_2011_terracotta_ referring to his Nok pieces, hidden away in an attic, as figures.pdf; Nok terracottas, 12 August 2012, https:// his ‘retirement’ – i.e. a valuable, long-standing (if illicit) traffickingculture.org/encyclopedia/case-studies/ investment. nok-terracottas/; N Brodie, Red alert in Nigeria, 15 Interviews with two members of the Antiquity Rescuers Culture without Context, Issue 6, Spring 2000: https:// Association of Nigeria. Named as one of the most traffickingculture.org/app/uploads/2012/07/CWC-6.pdf. prominent European dealers engaged in this activity 4 P Breunig and N Rupp, An outline of recent studies was the now-deceased Swiss dealer René David. A on the Nigerian Nok culture, Journal of African number of objects have been traced from his Zurich- Archaeology, 14: 3, 2016, https://pdfs.semanticscholar. based art business and have since been repatriated. He org/a665/0623d8dbbf1c44bcd25371942d96f73bc2 reportedly served a brief sentence in Nigeria for the 94.pdf. falsification of paperwork relating to antiquities export.
5 Discussions with archaeologists in the region and in 16 Interview with former member of the security services, Europe (including Peter Breunig, Zacharys Gundu and Jos, June 2019. Folarin Shyllon) suggested these objects are currently among the most affected by illegal excavation and 17 Interviews with two members of the Antiquity Rescuers export. Association of Nigeria, and a former member of the security services, Jos, June 2019; Interview with US- 6 Interviews with multiple representatives of the NCMM, based member of the art market, conducted remotely, Abuja, June 2019. July 2019.
7 National Commission For Museums and Monuments 18 Interview with archaeologist, Jos, June 2019. Act 1979, Chapter 242, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990, www.nigeria-law.org/National%20 19 P Darling, The rape of Nok and Kwatakwashi: the crisis Commission%20For%20Museums%20and%20 in Nigerian antiquities, Culture Without Context, 6, Monuments%20Act.htm. 2000, 15–21.
8 Interviews with multiple representatives of the NCMM, 20 Interview with former member of the security services, Abuja, June 2019. Jos, June 2019.
9 Multiple interviews with art dealers in both Europe and 21 Interview with former member of the security services, the US. Jos, June 2019.
November 2020 11 22 Interviews with two archaeologists, Jos and Abuja, June mining cases where miners begin to use explosives 2019; Interview with an archaeologist based in Europe, such as dynamite, because of the threat to life involved. conducted remotely, April 2019. 34 One antiquities dealer interviewed directly stated that 23 ICOM, Red List information: Ife terracotta and bronzes he had entered the market via mining and had (Nigeria), http://archives.icom.museum/redlist/afrique/ subsequently specialised in archaeological objects. english/page02.htm. Interview with a member of the Antiquity Rescuers Association of Nigeria, Jos, June 2019. 24 F Willett, Restitution or re-circulation: Benin, Ife and Nok, Journal of Museum Ethnography, 12, 2000, 35 Intermediaries based in the Nok region reported ‘What 125–131, www.jstor.org/stable/40793650. we hear is that some of the buyers [in hubs within Nigeria and transit countries] have been discouraged 25 Interview with an archaeologist, conducted remotely, even from buying Nok, because they don’t get a ready April 2019. buyer in Europe.’ Interview with two members of the 26 Interview with a European-based art dealer and a Antiquity Rescuers Association of Nigeria, Jos, June Togo-based art dealer, both conducted remotely, 2019. June 2019. 36 One Lomé-based dealer, in describing how the city 27 Thermoluminescence determines the date at which a served as a central hub for West African art, antiquities piece of terracotta was last fired and therefore its and craft trading, estimated that ‘almost 90%’ of the authenticity. market had subsided, leaving local dealers searching for alternative livelihoods and causing an exodus of 28 Interview with US-based member of the art market, European dealers formerly based in the city. conducted remotely, July 2019; V Bortolot, Problems with Nigerian terra cottas and bronzes, Daybreak 37 Interviews with European-based art dealers, conducted Archaeometry Services: 2003, http://daybreaknuclear. remotely, July 2019. us/bortolot_daybreak_welcome.html#PROBLEMS%20 38 See M Adow, Nigerian ethnic violence: conflict amplifies WITH%20NIGERIAN%20TERRA%20COTTAS%20AND. religious divide, Al Jazeera, 20 August 2019, www. 29 See discussion in: Z Gundu, Looted Nigerian heritage: aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/nigerian-ethnic-violence- an interrogatory discourse around repatriation, Paper conflict-amplifies-religious-divide-190820103814529. presented at the Workshop on Issues of Restitution and html; Al Jazeera, Gangs kill dozens in series of attacks in Repatriations of Looted and Illegally Acquired African northern Nigeria, Al Jazeera, 10 June 2019, www. Objects in European Museums, Merian Institute for aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/gangs-kill-dozens-series- Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA), University of attacks-northern-nigeria-190610134420260.html. Ghana, Legon, 13–14 December 2018; Personal 39 See: Reuters, Nigeria suspends mining in Zamfara state correspondence with the author. Subsistence looting after banditry surges, Reuters, April 7, 2019, www. has been described as a major factor in illegal reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-security/nigeria-suspends- antiquities markets in many contexts. mining-in-zamfara-state-after-banditry-surges- 30 Interviews with two members of the Antiquity Rescuers idUSKCN1RJ0IS. Association of Nigeria, Jos, June 2019. 40 Interview with an archaeologist, Abuja, June 2019. Interview with an archaeologist, Abuja, June 2019; 31 41 Interview with an archaeologist, Abuja, June 2019. Interview with an archaeologist working for the NCMM, Jos, June 2019. 42 Interview with antiquities dealer, Abuja, conducted remotely, July 2019. 32 Interviews with two archaeologists, one a current employee of the NCMM, Abuja, June 2019. Interview 43 Interview with antiquities dealer, Abuja, conducted with antiquities dealer, Abuja, conducted remotely, July remotely, July 2019. 2019. One local dealer suggested that Nok sculptures are sometimes feared and seen as ‘powerful’ objects. 44 Interview with a European-based art dealer, conducted Surprisingly this was given as a reason for trading in remotely, July 2019. them, as it was understood that such powerful objects 45 Interview with a US-based member of the art market, would be able to ‘fight for themselves’ and do not conducted remotely, July 2019. require protection, interview with former looter, Nok region, June 2019. 46 Interviews with two European-based art dealers, conducted remotely, July 2019. 33 Artisanal mining is done openly in the Nok region and is widespread. In an interview, a police officer in Abuja 47 All the art dealers interviewed, in source, transit and informed us that the police only intervene in illegal destination countries were in agreement about this.
12 Culture in ruins: The illegal trade in cultural property, Nigeria 48 Interview with a US-based member of the art market, 60 While this policy is unusual and was seen as conducted remotely, July 2019. controversial by several of the current and former members of the NCMM and by archaeologists (one of 49 Interviews with three European-based art dealers, whom described the approach as the NCMM ‘laying conducted remotely and in person, July 2019. aside its own laws’ in acquiring objects from vendors), it is not unprecedented around the world. 50 Interview with a European-based art dealer, conducted remotely, July 2019. 61 Interview with two members of the Antiquity Rescuers Association of Nigeria, Jos, June 2019. 51 In fact, there was a certain amount of hostility expressed by dealers towards research on illicit trade 62 Interviews with two members of the Antiquity and corruption within the market. They saw recent Rescuers Association of Nigeria, Abuja, June 2019; research and media narratives as a form of Interview with Abuja-based art dealer, remotely, July scaremongering which over-emphasises the criminal 2019; Interview with self-described former antiquities elements of their market and as a threat to sales and looter, Nok region, June 2019. their financial security. 63 Interview with self-described former antiquities looter, 52 Interview with current employee of the NCMM, Abuja, Nok region, June 2019. June 2019. 64 In the words of one ARAN member: ‘We rescue these 53 Interview with a member of the Antiquity Rescuers things and domicile them with the Commission… and Association of Nigeria, Abuja, June 2019. we have not been compensated. And that encouraged some bad elements amongst us to take the objects to 54 In the words of one Abuja-based antiquities dealer: these “money-bags” [foreign dealers] who will pay for ‘They are all foreigners. I can’t call them foreigners them.’ Another argued that, while rescuers must – they are my African brothers but they are from West search for customers abroad if the NCMM is unable to Africa. All the objects and pieces which come from fulfil its obligations, the preservation of these objects in Nigeria you will get from them. Archaeology, whatever European art galleries is a preferable outcome to the you like… If they take their pieces to Cameroon, or to objects not being adequately appreciated within Cotonou, or to Niger, who will follow them there?... You communities. can’t stop them.’ 65 Interview with current member of the NCMM, Abuja, 55 Interview with self-described former antiquities looter June 2019. based in the Nok region, interview with antiquities Interviews with two archaeologists, Jos, June 2019; dealer, and interviews with two members of the 66 Interviews with two archaeologists with in-depth Antiquity Rescuers Association of Nigeria, Abuja, knowledge of the NCMM, Abuja and Jos, June 2019. conducted remotely, July 2019. 67 Interview with an archaeologist, Jos, June 2019. 56 Interview with a West African-based art dealer, conducted remotely, July 2019. 68 Interview with current member of the NCMM, Abuja, June 2019. 57 Interview with two members of the Antiquity Rescuers Association of Nigeria, Jos, June 2019. 69 Interview with current member of the NCMM, Abuja, June 2019; Interview with archaeologist, Jos, June 58 Z Gundu, Looted Nigerian heritage: an interrogatory 2019. Some NCMM employees claimed that corrupt discourse around repatriation, Paper presented at the links between senior figures in NCMM management Workshop on Issues of Restitution and Repatriations of and ARAN may have facilitated the development of Looted and Illegally Acquired African Objects in this relationship, Interview with archaeologist and European Museums, Merian Institute for Advanced current member of the NCMM, Jos, June 2019. Studies in Africa (MIASA), University of Ghana, Legon, 13–14 December 2018; Personal correspondence with 70 Interview with an archaeologist, Jos, June 2019. the author. 71 Interview with an archaeologist, Jos, June 2019. 59 One of the few to call attention to ARAN is the illicit 72 Interview with two members of the Antiquity Rescuers antiquities trade blogger and archaeologist Sam Hardy, Association of Nigeria, Jos, June 2019. who cites concerns that the rescuers may be engaging in illicit trade. S Hardy, The antiquities trade in Nigeria: 73 This also came up with regard to wooden votive looting in the midst of economic, environmental, objects. ARAN members said that communities could political and professional crisis, Conflict Antiquities, attack them and one could ‘lose a life’ collecting October 24 2012, https://conflictantiquities.wordpress. objects, which undermines their claim that they are com/2012/10/24/nigeria-antiquities-trade-crisis/. collecting these objects to preserve and protect them
November 2020 13 from destruction when they are no longer valued in 83 Interview with two representatives of the Nigerian communities and people are voluntarily selling them. customs authority, Abuja, June 2019.
74 Interview with archaeologist, Jos, June 2019; Interview 84 Factum Foundation, Bakor monoliths: Metropolitan with archaeologist, Abuja, June 2019. fragment conference and site visits, March 2018, www. factumfoundation.org/pag/1173/Cross-River-Monoliths- 75 Interview with member of the Antiquity Rescuers Association of Nigeria, Jos, June 2019; Interview with Metropolitan-Fragment-Conference-and-Site-Visits; The Abuja-based antiquities dealer, conducted remotely, Bakor monoliths: initial survey and documentation, July 2019. October 2016, www.factumfoundation.org/pag/1173/ Cross-River-Monoliths-Metropolitan-Fragment- 76 In the words of one employee: ‘It’s weaker as the years Conference-and-Site-Visits; I Miller and A Edet, Cross go by. When I came into the Museum 20 years ago, I River monoliths: in critical danger of total destruction, met an institution that was alive and that was 2019, www.researchgate.net/publication/333448462_ interested in excavations and galleries, but now…’. Cross_River_Monoliths_in_critical_danger_of_total_ 77 Interview with an archaeologist and current employee destruction. of the NCMM, Jos, June 2019. 85 This was recommended by all interviewees who 78 Interview with an archaeologist, Jos, June 2019. With highlighted the illicit practices of some members of respect to Nok, one such incident was reported by an ARAN. Interviews with archaeologists and current archaeologist in the region of a large-scale removal of employees of the NCMM, Jos, June 2019; Interview Nok objects from the National Museum in Jos, with an archaeologist and former member of the reportedly for exhibition overseas but then never NCMM, Abuja, June 2019. returned. 86 Interviews with two Nigerian-based archaeologists, 79 Interview with employee of the NCMM, Jos, June 2019. Abuja and Jos, June 2019. 80 Interview with an archaeologist and current employee 87 Interview with a current employee of the NCMM, Abuja, of the NCMM, Abuja, June 2019. June 2019. 81 Interview at national police headquarters, Abuja, 88 As recommended in multiple interviews with current June 2019. and former members of the NCMM and several 82 Interview with a police sergeant, Abuja, June 2019. Nigerian-based archaeologists, June 2019.
14 Culture in ruins: The illegal trade in cultural property, Nigeria This project is funded by the European Union
About the authors
Julia Stanyard is an analyst at the Global Initiative. She holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Cambridge. Her MPhil thesis was on crime prevention strategies taken to combat the illicit antiquities trade. She has recently completed a fellowship with the British Institute for Eastern Africa, researching illicit antiquities in Africa.
Rim Dhaouadi is a research consultant for the ENACT programme. She is a lawyer and has a master’s degree in international law from Aix-en-Provence. She was legal officer and programme manager with Democracy Reporting International and with the Geneva Center for Democratic Governance of Armed Forces. About this case study
This case study forms part of a set of publications on the illegal trade in cultural property in North and West Africa, made up of research paper 18, as well as three case studies (on Mali, Nigeria and North Africa). About ENACT
ENACT builds knowledge and skills to enhance Africa’s response to transnational organised crime. ENACT analyses how organised crime affects stability, governance, the rule of law and development in Africa, and works to mitigate its impact. ENACT is implemented by the Institute for Security Studies and INTERPOL, in affiliation withhe t Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Acknowledgements
ENACT is funded by the European Union (EU). The authors would like to thank Simone Haysom for her guidance and support during the fieldwork and coordination of this research, and also the many archaeologists and heritage experts consulted for this research for their generosity in sharing their time, expertise and dedication to their field.
Cover image: Peter Breunig
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