As I announced on 10 November 2021 during the ceremony of their reception at the Marina Palace, here are finally presented to us, the 26 royal treasures of Benin returned by France.

From the North to the South of the country, from the East to the West and from the farthest reaches of all the diasporas, Beninese people of all generations are invited to come and discover them. As much as any citizen of the world who wants to. These are unique cultural works that tell our history, our identity, our soul.

Statues or sculpted doors, elaborate thrones, portable altars or magnificent recadia, none of them leave us indifferent. There is no doubt that many of you will come into contact with them and contemplate their exceptional beauty, magnificence and splendour, signs of the prodigy of their creators. Many voices will see them and praise the vision and grandeur of the kings who commissioned them.

All this is true and it is only justice done to the intrinsic genius of our people. The present exhibition-event "Art of Benin of yesterday and today: from Restitution to Revelation", draws our attention, among other things, to the three wooden statues representing three great sovereigns of the Danxomè kingdom. More than the material (wood) or the subject matter (kings), these three statues have one thing in common that few people will notice: they were made by the same artist: Sossa DEDE.

Without this artist, without his talent and creativity, these masterpieces that we all admire today would not exist.

" It is at the end of the old rope that the new one is woven " says the proverb. Without Sossa DEDE and the others of the past, there would probably be no Yves PEDE, Romuald HAZOUME, Moufouli BELLO, Julien SINZOGAN, etc.

Our generation has decided not to make a mistake: we have chosen to gather them around the old masters, to reveal them to everyone: compatriots, tourists, collectors...

Beyond this highlighting, we are building them a framework, a home, a museum of contemporary art to welcome them even better and show them even more. We will put them in dialogue, in resonance with the other creators of their time, we will put them in circulation in the museums of the vast world: Venice, Dakar, Paris, Johannesburg, New York, Rabat or Berlin...

It is the time of restitution that has begun and that will continue resolutely until we reach our objective. For it must be admitted that the 26 royal treasures recovered are only the very first episode of a soap opera that promises other sequences.

In this same spirit, we are also beginning the time of revelation: revealing to ourselves the best we have and revealing to others how, without Benin, the world would not be quite the same.

From yesterday to today, our artists and their works are the best ambassadors of our participation in the universal.

Let us celebrate them.

PATRICE TALON