Tresor Royal Du Benin

Le Carre Hermes Paris >> Automne - Hiver 1997 / 98

Royal treasures of Benin

In this ancient kingdom which stretched the length of the Gulf of Guinea, agates, ivory and coral pearls formed a well guarded treasure. Here, jewels of a clearly religious symbolism rub shoulders with statuettes of court dwarves, a queen mother, a princely heir, a sacred cock and three of those heads of slid bronze, effigies of enemy chiefs decapitated in defeat which were meant as a warning to enemy kings.