This bronze clearly represents the head of an oni. The eyes, lips, and ears are stylized according to ideal models. Yet the features are strongly individualized, and the head may well have been intended as a portrait. The bronzes of Benin are the outcome of a long tradition. The discovery of the Benin bronzes dates from 1897, when a British punitive expedition stripped the city of Benin of many objects, which were carried to London. Soon after this expedition a newly elected oba (king) did everything to breathe new life into the old arts and was, up to a point, successful. The “Benin style” is a court art from the palace of the divine oba. The oba possessed a monopoly of bronze.