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Podcast: New Books in Art
Episode: Paddy Docherty, "Blood and Bronze: The British Empire and the Sack of Benin" (Hurst, 2022)
Description: The Benin Bronzes are among the British Museum’s most prized possessions. Celebrated for their great beauty, they embody the history, myth and artistry of the ancient Kingdom of Benin, once West Africa’s most powerful, and today part of Nigeria. But despite the Bronzes’ renown, little has been written about the brutal imperial violence with which they were plundered. Paddy Docherty’s searing new history tells that story: the 1897 British invasion of Benin.Armed with shocking details discovered in the archives, Paddy Docherty in his latest book Blood and Bronze: The British Empire and the Sack of Benin ...