Altar Figure
21.12.97.5
Information
Little is known about this weathered ivory figure of a kneeling man, except that it was an altarpiece. Dr Felix Roth, Surgeon to the Advance Guard during the British military assault against Benin in 1897, claimed only that the figure was “found” with the bronze leopard 21.12.97.3 on an altar in a “dwelling house”. Dr Roth sold this figure to the Liverpool Museums in December 1897. He would have taken it as his portion of the unofficial loot, which the British officers who participated in the military attack on Benin shared out among themselves in February 1897.