Clearly saddened by the precarious nature of art appreciation in Nigeria and the brickbat on issues surrounding the restoration of stolen Nigerian art works, foremost art enthusiast and collector, Prince Yemisi Shyllon has flayed the country’s non-availability of adequate infrastructure to receive the art works and harness the latent potential in them.
The art patron stated this on Sunday, January 15, 2023, while featuring on the Toyin Falola Interview Series chaired by the erudite professor African history, Professor Toyin Falola. Among other prominent art lovers and critics who formed the panel of interviewers were Professor Peju Layiwola, Professor Dele Jegede, and Victor Ekpuk. The event was streamed live via Facebook, Zoom, Telegraph, among other various social media platforms.
According to Prince Shyllon, the restoration of Nigeria’s art works should be viewed within the context of the country’s readiness and the provision of the appropriate infrastructure to receive them. “Returning of art works is a global issue. It has been handled by UNESCO. It has been handled under the international customary law. Various treaties and conventions have discussed it and arranged how these things should be done, and for which France has been able to benefit from Germany that looted France after the Second World War. From this also, Russia has been able to benefit from Germany from the works looted by the Nazis from St. Petersburg. Also Turkey has made a serious case against America and had its works restituted. It is a global issue. For Africans to want restitution, I want to start by deferring to Professor Peju Layiwola who wrote a book on Benin 1897. She is an expert in this issue.
“Those works should be returned but should not be hastily returned. We should at ensuring under the different conventions and UNESCO to have recognition of our legal rights to those works. Once our legal rights are established, we can use that to negotiate royalty on an annual basis and give ourselves enough time to prepare the reception for those works. We are in a hurry to have these works returned. What has happened to some of them that have been returned? Go to our various national museums, you will weep. I have been to museums in Africa and I am not proud of what I have in my country. I have been to the Kenyan museum in Nairobi. I was very pleased by what I saw. I have been to Cairo museums in Egypt, I was very pleased with what I saw. I have been to the Senegal museums; I was very pleased with what I saw. I cannot say that about my country which was why I volunteered to serve without collecting money as part of the management committee of one of Nigeria’s national museums founded in 1957.
“Let us use the advantage of the various United Nations and treaties under supervision by UNESCO to negotiate that they recognize our legal title to retain possession for now and give some phased return in which we build capacity, in terms of insfrastucture, human capital, science and technology. We don’t have carbon dating equipment in Nigeria and we are shouting restoration and repatriation. We lack the necessary infrastructural capacities. The bulk of the Nigerian populace that you are returning the works to believe that those works are demonic,” he said.
Earlier, Shyllon noted that the Federal Government should provide adequate attention towards investment in art. According to him, “Art is more lucrative than kidnapping. It is more enduring. It is lawful; it is a legal transaction that is respected all over the world. It can be passed from generation to generation. It also helps to promote the culture of a nation. It helps to develop young minds into being more productive in society. Collecting art is a form of providing employment. If Nigeria could invest in art, the tourism potential is extensive. The Eiffel Tower takes about 10 million visitors per annum. The potential behind art is huge and unimaginable. Art will give this nation something to be proud of. It will give this nation something to showcase, which in fact means that we contributed to civilization, that we had history before we were colonized. It is completely better than ransom taking.”
Speaking on his background and the circumstances which influenced his love, passion and entrance into art collection, Shyllon revealed that “I grew up in Yaba, Lagos; I had the privilege of being nurtured by my maternal grandmother who is the first daughter of the first lawyer in Nigeria. She told me a lot about the academic exploits and the roles Shapara Williams played in Nigeria’s development. I grew up with that kind of zeal of wanting to make a difference like my late great grandfather. I attended St. Patrick Primary School in Yaba. I also attended Lagos City College, a secondary school at Yaba, because my grandmother ensured that I attended school very close to her. I found myself attending the University of Ibadan because during my time it was the first place you wanted to go for university education. This eventually made all the difference in my life. It was the University of Ibadan that introduced me to loving animals and plants. Of course, I also found myself at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University where I got exposed to what culture is all about. Because of my association with the Yaba
“Before then, I had been collecting arts at the University of Ibadan. I used to go to Mokola. I started collecting arts out of interest for culture and arts. But the University of Ife gave me a cultural input into the importance of arts. When I left the University of Ife, I found myself working as an engineer in Kano. I found myself travelling far and wide; I discovered more about life, museums; in fact in total, I have gone to about seventy countries in the world. My love for arts started with the interest I gathered when I was in secondary school; I was a very good arts students. I did all that until I forgot about it because of mathematics. That latent talent in me brought out the arts.
“I was more interested in sculptures. My first sculptural work is a stylized work by an unknown artist whom I stumbled upon at the University of Ibadan, and I still have it in my collection. In fact, I put those early works in a place which I called ‘The Crowd’. When people come, I show this to them. That was how I started at the University of Ibadan.”
