An initial examination of the approximately 15,000 exhibits in the former mission museum “Forum of Peoples” has revealed indications that closer inspection of several objects is necessary to clarify their provenance.
It is clear that the acquisition history would be problematic if some of the exhibits, displayed in Werl for years, were once seized by force and taken out of the country.
Potentially problematic areas of focus for the Werl Ethnological Museum include:
- 13 “Benin Bronzes,” for which it must first be determined whether they are original and therefore valuable, or whether they are copies. If they are genuine, which would require material analysis and an art historical assessment, they would originate from a British military operation against Benin in 1897 and should be returned to the African country.
- Human remains, primarily from Papua New Guinea, but also from Tibet. The fact that such items are found in missionary museums is “surprisingly common among church-affiliated institutions”; the original aim was apparently to demonstrate in exhibitions how people in mission territories dealt with the topic of “death”—and also to justify missionary work in foreign countries. One example from Werl: a skull from an ancestral home. The question to be clarified is whether it was voluntarily given to the missionaries or forcibly acquired.
- Collection items from China dating back to the time of the “Boxer War”, which may have found their way to Werl illegally via various channels.
