Nigerian scholar calls for halt to auction of sacred Igbo artworks

Chika Okeke-Agulu says sale of sculptures removed during 1960s civil war perpetuates violence' of conflict

A prominent Igbo-Nigerian artist and academic has called for the cancellation of a forthcoming auction in Paris of two sacred sculptures taken out of Nigeria during its devastating civil war in the late 1960s.

Chika Okeke-Agulu, a professor of art history at Princeton University, said the sale of the Igbo objects - called alusi or sacred sculptures" - at Christie's auction house later this month would perpetuate the violence" of the conflict.