Robert Owen Lehmann is a thief by any other name.

A few years back when Robert Owen Lehmann Jr was challenged about the possibly stolen status of a drawing his foundation was attempting to sell, Mr Lehmann, son of Robert Lehmann who had purchased the stolen drawing, was diligent and forthcoming in his attitude about the drawing. According to him, he “spent a good year trying to get those two parties and myself together to make some sort of equitable, fair division of the artwork,” because he has “sympathy for the heirs whose relatives suffered at the hands of the Nazis” The drawing in question, by the Austrian artist Egon Shiele, was actually being contested for as ‘stolen art’ by not one but two alleged owners/families, both in sudden, previously nonexistent claims prior to Mr Lehmann’s attempting to sell the drawing by auction. Mr Lehmann was nonetheless eager to acquiesce, to ensure the drawing is returned to whoever was the first owner. Meaning, of the two claimants, who was the first to have purchased the drawing from the artist directly or from his direct representatives prior to the drawing being looted by the nazis (who then allegedly sold it to a collector/gallerist who sold it to Mr Lehmann’s father, Robert Lehmann Sr)

Whereas the sacred and artistic works of Benin Kingdom (collectively referred to as #BeninBronzes) that were said to be in the “Lehmann Collection” of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) after a “gift” to the museum in 2012 by Mr Lehmann’s own foundation for such things were never exchanged in any such manner by the owners of the works, the Oba of Benin. The status of the #BeninBronzes is a well known, universally recognized theft with decades long struggle in the demand for their return to the rightful place and owners, the Oba’s Palace in Benin City. The ownership of the #BeninBronzes has never once been transferred by the Oba or the palace in Benin City to any body or organization whatsoever, whether as art in the manner of some gallerist selling art or in any other way whatsoever.

Oba Akenzua himself as early as 1932 made an official request for the absolute return of our stolen patrimony. Before him, his father Oba Eweka II lamented the situation. Dispossessed of his rightful kingdom in the creation of the British colonial entity eventually called’Nigeria’, the king ensured the edaiken or prince in waiting was sent to the UK to study and understand the English and their language and in effect ensure the return of the sacred and cultural artefacts stolen from the palace in Benin City in 1897. 

In addition, it goes without saying that the stolen #BeninBronzes that Robert Lehmann Sr had crookedly or otherwise went around purchasing for his ‘art collection’ have sacred significance to the people of Edo and Benin Kingdom that no modern contemporary drawing or painting can be said to represent in a people anywhere on earth.

All of which means the #BeninBronzes currently said to be in this ‘Lehmann Collection’ are well known stolen artefacts of the kingdom of Benin, looted by British soldiers in 1897 from their pillaging and burning of the king’s palace in Benin City. These 34 items being ‘returned’ to Mr Robert Lehmann and/or his foundation are vital, significant cultural and sacred items belonging to the Edo people, their heritage as Benins and the institutions in time memorial of their Oba. 

Mr Lehmann is fully aware of this, was acutely aware of this fact precisely at the time especially in 2012 when he was announced as handing over 34 items to the museum in Boston as “gift”. This is because in 2012 when Robert Owen Lehman Jr, through his foundation of same name, ‘gifted’ 34 #BeninBronzes in his collection to The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), enabling the later to become ‘a major player among collections of the famed Royal Benin brass and ivory sculptures,’ barely two years before that, in 2010, great outcry had risen against Sotheby’s attempt to sell one of Iyoba India’s Ivory Heads. Meaning, that Mr Lehmann began his ‘gifting’ or as he now calls it, ‘lending’, shortly after learning of the difficulties his foundation might have in any potential auction. (It takes about that long to ‘gift’ a museum a serious collection). Fast forward to 2025 amidst the tail end of decades long deafening calls for the return of the looted works of Benin Kingdom, in a single breath the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) announces this April that it is not only choosing to remove the stolen 34 objects aka #BeninBronzes from display, it will now ‘return’ them to ‘the lenders’. (PS: while the museum in Boston has conveniently deleted their 2012 press announcement page, including deletion of the number of objects in this their 2025 press announcement page, see a mention of actual number of objects being gifted and what they might have said of the collection in an article here)

Such are the vagaries of obstruction Edo/Benin kingdom has faced, including the highly dishonest attempt practiced by the looters to misidentify dates and dating as part of their cunning ways of holding on to looted artefacts of the kingdom Benin. Rather than begin the process of their being returned to their rightful owners, Benin Kingdom, Mr Robert Owen Lehman Jr has insisted that the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) return to his foundation the very same #BeninBronzes that do not belong to either himself nor his foundation and never will. 

Mr Lehman is basically seeking to keep what is not his, what he had in fact ‘gifted’ for public enjoyment and what is well known as stolen properties belonging to an entire culture and people. Basically, a thief who isn’t consistent with his theft, simultaneously trying to play a quick hand (forcing a museum to give back a ‘gift’ which was not his to give away in the first place) against his previous doublefaced role of being a man of character (ie giving a ‘gift’ to a public institution). One is almost certain of a couple of things : 1. that Robert Lehman Jr scurried off stolen property as ‘gift’ (and subsequently written off millions off taxes on it) because 2. the thief in him realizes that that was the best way to profit from his father’s foray into stolen art and artefacts.

It would seem that in Mr Lehmann’s mind, the drawing by Schiele which had no known history of being stolen before his attempt at auctioning could be made whole by giving it back to its rightful owners but the stolen artefacts belonging to a people and kingdom in Africa may be claimed by some spurious ‘right’ of ‘purchase’? Surely that cannot be right. Stolen properties cannot be sold or kept. What is stolen must be returned.

Robert Owen Lehman Jr has no right to ‘gift’ or ‘lend’ what has been stolen. The other concerning aspect of the Boston museum’s announcement is the possibility that Robert Owen Lehman Jr and his foundation may in fact be entertaining ferreting away these stolen objects, belonging to the kingdom of Benin, to the ‘private market’. After all, Robert Lehman Jr and his foundation are most certainly aware and greedily so that a #BeninBronze, Esigie Head with Snail Shell, held by the daughter of yet another criminal ‘collector’ of stolen works was sold in 2021 for 10million pounds..

We are asking Robert Owen Lehman Jr. to instead think differently from the greed and vileness of his ilk. The stolen sacred and cultural and artistic artefacts of Benin Kingdom must all be returned.

As Oba Erediauwa stated in 2007, it has always been part of the palace’s decision that, upon their return, these works shall be shared worldwide by the palace sending out to museums worldwide copies made by various Benin guilds still existing to date from time immemorial for our shared human history, research and appreciation by all.

But the actual stolen objects themselves must be returned. 

The objects,numbering over 4000 according to the looters though several thousands more in our own estimation here, hold sacred documentation, whether of mythologies, lore or history, belonging to and by people of Edo-Speaking race and are collectively vital continuity as documents of our past, location and lineage.

It takes a particular class of arrogant, vile abusers of our shared humanity who peddle in stolen artefacts, to hold over others some spurious ‘right’ to hoarding and selling and ‘gifting’ and ‘lending’ stolen patrimonies and sacred objects belonging to others.

We speak for all Edo-speaking people in demanding that whether as himself or his foundation, Robert Owen Lehman Jr must return to the owners, the Oba of Benin Kingdom, the stolen sacred objects of Benin Kingdom he is illegally hoarding. 

The objects violently taken from the palace in Benin City in 1897 collectively hold sacred, spiritual, historical, documentarian significance to the Edo-speaking people of Benin Kingdom. Kindly return them back to the Oba in Benin City from where they were stolen.

Head of Oba Esigie.

wrongly listed by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston as ”Commemorative head of a defeated neighboring leader”

one of the 34 significant #BeninBronzes in the “Robert Owen Lehman Collection” Museum of Fine Arts, Boston