capital city of the ancient Ife Kingdom to the northwest, and with later establishing a royal brass-casting guild. Others suggest brass casting developed independently in Benin and may have mutually benefited from exchange with Ile Ife. Casters in both regions used the lost wax method, in which a precisely detailed wax model is formed over a clay core. When the model is complete, clay is carefully applied over the wax. It is then heated, melting the wax, which exits from a narrow channel. Next, molten metal is poured into the mold. Once cool, the hardened clay is chipped away, leaving behind an image now cast in bronze. The Punitive Expedition The decline of Benin art occurred at the end of the 19th century when the Benin Expedition of 1897 by the British caused impairment in the creation of the arts. On February 18, 1897, the British arrived in Benin City to punish a massacre. The possessions of the Oba and his court became spoils of war. The objects were rounded up with little regard for their associated meaning; no systematic record was kept of their grouping or placement. Many of these objects were sold in London to defray the cost of the expedition. In April 2021 Germany agreed to return to present-day Nigeria the Benin bronzes that their troops had looted from the Kingdom of Benin. In late 2021 the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington DC removed the Benin bronzes that they have from display and they say they have plans to repatriate them. Current Issues Surrounding the Return of Looted Benin Art After the British 1897 pillaged of Oba Ovonramwen’s compound in retaliation for the murder of British diplomats, most of pieces of Benin art were auctioned off in London. Today the Benin kingdom, located now in modern day Nigeria, is asking for its art objects back, which are spread across Western Countries such as Britain, Germany, and the United States. In 2007, western museums joined Nigeria in the “Benin Dialogue Group” to open discussion about the retrieval of the art pieces. The movement slowed until the recent wave of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Flyod. Many countries, universities, and museums have returned or promised to return their pieces. With the returning of the stolen work, many worry about the fate of the art, as there is now a battle for possession