Collecting copper alloy portrait heads: A history of the acquisition and export of the Wúnmọníjẹ̀ heads in late colonial Nigeria.

This article focuses on the discovery, subsequent export, and contested ownership of the naturalistic copper and copper alloy heads found at Wúnmọníjẹ̀ Compound in Ilé-Ifẹ̀, Nigeria, in 1938. It details how these culturally significant Yorùbá artefacts were covertly acquired and exported by foreign individuals, notably American anthropologist William R. Bascom and British journalist Henry Maclear Bate, amid a lack of Nigerian export legislation at the time. The article also examines claims of undocumented exports of several heads to Germany by a trading firm prior to World War II, highlighting the exploitative colonial context and the British Museum's controversial acquisition of one head. It underscores the ongoing relevance of these events to contemporary discussions on the restitution and repatriation of Nigerian cultural patrimony from Western institutions.