By Metohuey Michael Adoglo
The President of the Republic Benin, Patrice Talon – at the end of the opening of the exhibition he chaired, last Saturday admits ”Art of Benin yesterday and today, from restitution to fills him with great pride.
Speaking to the Press on the Opening day of the Exhibition President Talon said;
“In front of such a greatness of our past and such a genius of our present, and such a certainty of what we will be tomorrow, there are no words, no words that are worthwhile. There is no speech worth making. I don’t know what to say to you. I vibrate with emotion, pride and faith in what we were, what we are and what we will be. May God bless Benin!”
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“The 26 artworks that the French authorities; executive and legislative, wanted to return to us within the framework of the cooperation are certainly the beginning of a movement, but it is already a lot in that it is a taboo that has been overcome. The rest will be easy because it is no longer a subject, it is no longer a concern to know if it is possible or not. We have done the essential. Of course, we are not going to stop here because there are still many others that are the symbol of our history, of our identity that, for us, should come back here to complete the range of what our history will have left as traces for us, for our children and our great-grandchildren. We will therefore continue to discuss, to negotiate with the French authorities so that some of them come back to complete what we have just seen.”
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