The Art Newspaper: Smithsonian Museum of African Art removes Benin bronzes from display and plans to repatriate them . “The Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC has removed its Benin bronzes from display and is planning to repatriate artefacts that were looted by the British in an 1897 raid on the royal palace, according to the museum’s director, Ngaire Blankenberg.”