**Does the head belong to the horseman? Fragments of the Kingdom of Benin’s cultural heritage are scattered throughout more than 130 museums around the world.** UZH Ethnographic Museum, photo: Kathrin Leuenberger

The journey of the headless horseman

Looted from Benin in 1897, a 400- to 500-year-old figurine of a headless horseman found its way to Switzerland through the collector Han Coray. When he was declared bankrupt, the University of Zurich acquired the statuette and attempted to reunite the rider with his missing head. What at first sight looked like a good fit proved to be deceptive.

Alice Hertzog

Alice Hertzog is a provenance researcher at the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich

How did looted Benin Bronzes end up in Swiss museums? And where do they belong today? Since the beginning of the 20th century, these fine examples of the West African art of casting metal have found their way into both public and private collections, including prestigious art collections and museums in Switzerland. Yet behind the aesthetic appeal of these pieces lies a darker tale of colonial war, plunder and expropriation. In 1897, British military forces attacked the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now Nigeria, burning down the capital city, sending the king into exile and looting an estimated 10,000 objects. Cultural institutions in whose care these objects are now held are currently addressing the violent history of their acquisition and demands for their restitution. The journey of a 16th century bronze equestrian statuette held by the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich, illustrates current attempts to deal with contested colonial collections. It exemplifies how Benin’s cultural heritage came to be dispersed, and how provenance research is now retracing that trajectory.

**View of the ‘Benin Dues’ exhibition, where horse and rider are on display from 24 August 2024 to 14 September 2025.** UZH Ethnographic Museum, photo: Kathrin Leuenberger

The figure was produced by the Guild of Bronze Casters of the Royal Court of Benin sometime between the mid-16th and the late 17th century, and was possibly commissioned by the king Oba Esigie (ca. 1504–1550). It then remained within the palace and was passed down through 19 generations of Obas (kings), before finally entering into the possession of Oba Ovonramwen when he acceded to the throne in 1888. It is therefore highly likely that the figurine was part of the haul of objects stolen by British soldiers in 1897.

**The plundered objects awaiting removal from the royal palace in Benin, 1897.** © The Trustees of the British Museum

The figure was acquired by the Ethnographic Collection of the University of Zurich in 1940 as part of the bankruptcy estate of Swiss collector Han Coray (1880–1974). A prominent figure within Zurich art circles, Han Coray was as an avant-garde gallerist, art dealer and collector. He also was an educator, at one point ran a bookshop, and later in life managed a hotel. In addition to Old Master paintings, he amassed over 2,500 non-European artefacts, including the equestrian figure from Nigeria.

**Portrait photograph of Han Coray, taken by Berenice Abbott between 1925 and 1930.** The Clark Museum

It is not known for sure how he acquired the horseman, although it was possible to conclusively trace other Benin pieces in his collection back to the French art market. However, it is interesting to note that his passion for collecting was financed by the wealth of his second wife, millionaire Dutch heiress Dorrie Stoop (1895–1928). The two met in his bookshop in 1919, when she was in Zurich for treatment at Dr Carl Jung’s clinic. They married shortly after that, giving Han Coray, fifteen years Dorrie’s senior, access to the Stoop family fortune. Dorrie’s father, Adriaan Stoop, was a mining engineer who had made his fortune from colonial petroleum concessions in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). In 1886 Stoop took his company public, generating the equivalent of CHF 180 million today in cash and shares. In 1911, the company merged with the Shell oil and gas group. It was this money, amassed from the colonial extraction of natural resources, which financed the couple’s lavish lifestyle in Zurich. Dorrie Stoop’s parents gave them a villa in Erlenbach as a wedding present. Thanks to their growing art collection, it was soon transformed into a private museum. However, the family allowance was discontinued when Dorrie Stoop committed suicide in 1928, forcing Han Coray to declare himself bankrupt shortly thereafter. As a result of his bankruptcy, the figurine was seized by the then Schweizerische Volksbank (later to become Credit Suisse), along with the rest of Coray’s non-European collection. The staff of the Ethnographic Collection at the University of Zurich were then asked by the bank to appraise the objects with a view to their sale. In 1940, the bank agreed to sell 468 artefacts to the University of Zurich. The collection’s director Hans Jakob Wehrli and research assistant Elsy Leuzinger (who would eventually go on to become the director of Zurich’s Rietberg Museum) arranged the sale of the remaining pieces to a number of Swiss museums and private collectors. Several of the Benin Bronzes now on display at the Kulturmuseum St. Gallen and Museum Rietberg ended up there as a result of this transaction.

**The horseman on display, minus his head, circa 1940.** UZH Ethnographic Museum

When the equestrian statuette entered the university’s collection in 1940, the rider was headless. This is confirmed by archive photos of earlier exhibitions of the Coray collection in Lugano, Munich, Winterthur and Basel during 1931 and 1932. In the 1950s, Elsy Leuzinger identified a head in the British Museum’s collection that appeared to be a match. Leuzinger sent the headless horseman to London in 1959 to be photographed with that head for a publication she was planning. Ten years later, on the occasion of an African art exhibition, Die Kunst von Schwarz Afrika, at the Kunsthaus in Zurich, that same head was sent to Zurich. A copy was made in the National Museum Zurich’s plaster workshop and mounted onto the rider, with the original head being sent back to London. Since then the figure, along with its recast head, has been exhibited in Germany, the United States, Canada, South Africa and, of course, Switzerland. It was loaned to the Museum Rietberg in 2007 and did not return to the Ethnographic Museum until 2018.

**The Director of Kunsthaus Zürich, Dr R. Wehrli, placing the head from the British Museum on the horseman.** Kunsthaus Zürich

The attempt to reassemble the figurine, a literal piecing back together of objects, connecting two parts which were held in the care of two different European museum collections, can be interpreted as the reconstitution of a fragmented cultural heritage. However, when preparing an exhibition in 2023, Robert Tobler, a member of the restoration team at the Ethnographic Museum, and Urs Lang, a colleague from the university’s Archaeological Collection, took a closer look at the rider and his recast head. Examining wear on the collar bone along with the fracture, they concluded that the two parts did not match. What looked like a good fit at first sight proved to be deceptive. If past attempts to reunite the horseman with his head were unsuccessful, what action should be taken today? Should the museum leave the figure as it is, with the new head? Remove it? Or ask the Benin bronze casting guild to recast another head that is a better match?

Bronze horse and rider from the Kingdom of Benin. The head featured here does not actually belong to the figure. It is a copy of a head in the British Museum. The whereabouts of the original head and how the rider came to lose it remain a mystery. UZH Ethnographic Museum, photo: Kathrin Leuenberger

For the University of Zurich’s Ethnographic Museum, these are all questions that can only be answered in collaboration with partners from the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments. The Nigerian government wrote to the University of Zurich in March 2024, requesting the return of the figurine and 13 other objects from the Kingdom of Benin are thought to have been looted in 1897. This request is currently being considered. The example of the headless horseman shows how difficult it is to put back together the pieces that were broken in 1897 – there are no quick fixes for past colonial injustices. The horseman has not yet reached the end of his journey. Is it time for him to return home?

Benin Dues. Dealing with Looted Royal Treasures

24.08.2024 14.09.2025 / Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich

In 1897 British troops attacked the Kingdom of Benin in present-day Nigeria. They ousted the king, burned down the capital and looted thousands of royal artefacts from the palace. In Europe, the objects were sold on the art market as ‘Benin Bronzes’. In 1940, Benin artefacts also entered the collection of the Ethnographic Museum. Today, these objects oblige museums to engage with Nigerian communities, enable their access to their cultural heritage and acknowledge their claims to ownership. The exhibition draws on research from the Swiss Benin Initiative (BIS). It was developed together with Nigerian experts from Benin City and diaspora groups in Zurich.

More of: Modern Age 20th / 21st century Politics Colonialism Culture Art

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