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'Battle Royal for Benin relics'. Headline from the Glasgow Herald, January 25 1997.
The Benin Expedition of 1897 was a punitive expedition by a British force of 1,200 under Admiral Sir Harry Rawson in response to a massacre of a previous British-led invasion force. His troops captured, burned, and looted the city of Benin, bringing to an end the West African Kingdom of Benin. During the conquering and burning of the city, much of the country’s art, including the Benin Bronzes, was either destroyed, looted or dispersed.
Albert von Le Coq was a German archaeologist and explorer of Central Asia. He was heir to a sizable fortune derived from breweries and wineries scattered throughout Central and Eastern Europe, thus allowing him the luxury of travel and study at the - no longer existing - Ethnology Museum (German: Museum für Völkerkunde) in Berlin. Serving as assistant to the head of the Museum, Professor Albert Grünwedel, Le Coq helped plan and organize expeditions into the regions of western Asia, specifically areas near the Silk Road such as Gaochang. When Grünwedel fell ill before the departure of the second expedition, Le Coq was assigned to lead it. His account of the second and third German Turpan expeditions was published in English in 1928 as 'Buried Treasures of Chinese Turkestan'. He is remembered by generations of Chinese archaeologists and historians as one of the 'looters' of that nation's history, especially at the Bezeklik Caves.