{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O43992"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O43992/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH8948/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH8948/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BH8948","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O43992","accessionNumber":"E.56-1987","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"IX. The Lecture","type":"assigned by artist"},{"title":"History of the Benin Bronzes","type":"series title"}],"summaryDescription":"In 1897, following a series of frustrated attempts to end a monopoly on palm oil and various other commodities held by the Oba (king) of Benin, the British led a punitive raid on Benin City. Justification for this brutal event was sought, in the British press, by depicting the Oba and his people as ‘savages’ who practised human sacrifice. However, the elaborately carved ivories and cast brass plaques and sculpture seized from the royal court, and dispersed to British museum collections, were evidence of a sophisticated and technologically-advanced society.\r\n\r\nThis unsavoury aspect of British history was reflected on by artist Tony Phillips in a 1984 series of etchings, <i>History of the Benin Bronzes</i>. In the series, Phillips adopts the unusual technique of reusing a printing plate to create a second image, with elements of the first image still visible. Thus, in this image, the ninth in the suite of twelve plates, we revisit the leopards first pictured flanking the Oba in scene two (E.49-1987) to find them, as carved ivories, the subject of a museum curator’s lecture. The schematic way in which the museum environment is depicted emphasises the means by which the leopards have been forcibly removed from their original context.","physicalDescription":"Etching depicting the leopards first pictured flanking the Oba in scene two (E.49-1987) now, as carved ivories, the subject of a museum curator’s lecture.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Phillips, Tony","id":"A4285"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Etching, printed in blue","categories":[{"text":"Black History","id":"THES48989"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006BH8948"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"MP","shelf":"225","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"prints","id":"AAT41273"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"United Kingdom","id":"x29336"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1984","earliest":"1984-01-01","latest":"1984-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"E.48-1987","id":"O134456"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.49-1987","id":"O43985"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.50-1987","id":"O43986"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.51-1987","id":"O43987"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.52-1987","id":"O45656"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.53-1987","id":"O43989"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.54-1987","id":"O43990"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.55-1987","id":"O43991"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.57-1987","id":"O43993"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.58-1987","id":"O43994"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.59-1987","id":"O43995"},"association":"Set"}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"21.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"26.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measurements:\t21.6 x 26.7 cm.","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"'The Lecture', etching from the series 'History of the Benin Bronzes', Tony Phillips, 1984","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"lecture","id":"AAT26673"},{"text":"museums","id":"AAT5768"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.56-1987"],"accessionNumberNum":"56","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1987,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"Plate IX of XII","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-12","recordCreationDate":"2000-07-27","availableToBook":false}}