Victorian Britain was the world’s largest empire and Victorian attitudes to race, traced to scientific discoveries/knowledge of the time, shaped how Benin and other art by the colonies was perceived and treated

 

Before the 20th century, the art of Benin was outstanding and iconic such as Great Zimbabwe and Egypt's pyramids as it represented Black Africa through its cultural achievements. That age included imperial gaze and the works of Benin art and others astonished European curators.

The nineteenth century's empire had its own Britain African empire that was ruthless and extensive in fact as the empire as tending to empty its colonies from minerals, land and other sources in addition to subjugation of its local people by looting means and this led to many different forms of cultural erasing, art works such as Benin and others were looted by colonists and the world regarded this as evil act of the Britain empire.  

That type of art that Benin and others suggested was then recognized as an African accomplished when compared to the casting traditions of Europe and the Victorian age and it also represented renaissance cast art. After the British expeditions for art of Benin and others, that type of art evoked excitement and sensation. The different expeditions made in Europe turned the look at the art of Benin and others who focused on Africa and other areas where there are European colonies as people began to accept such art more and have pride of it. There has been a great role for art galleries and ethnological collections of art to change the way Europeans regard colonies and these art works changed the Victorian attitude towards these areas and people began to interpret their cultures better than before.   

It was in the nineteenth century when African artworks found the way to the West and they were regarded as being savage fetishes and even to be put at ethnographic museums but within time, this art inspired artists such as Picasso and it began to attract private collectors. Then in the 20th century the values of protecting cultural property began to appear and it even began to be forged. The European discovery of the art of Africa such as Benin didn't give it its rights for being kept and preserved well which can now be regarded as shame that Britain needs to forget as such treasures were stolen, crushed and destroyed by the colonists, it was that of countries with great cultures such as Nigeria, Egypt, Sudan and Kenya possessed by the colonist Britain with great imperialists' dreams at the time of queen Victoria when then the attacks against the Benin occurred. The fact that the Victorians were really moral about their empires contradicted the way they treated the art of Benin but in fact the looting of Benin was the event that enabled the African art to be visible to Europeans and modernism has been trying to give that art its right and bring life back to it. 

In conclusion, the great empire of the 19^th century treated treasures of their colonies such as African art of Benin in a way that is not suitable for their morale but within time this art is being regarded in a better way by art collectors and others all over the world.