National Museum of African Art

This guide to the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. traces a set of Benin bronzes from a burning palace in 1897, looted by British forces and sold at a London auction within months. You'll hear officer James Phillips's cold calculation of what the raid would be worth in ivory, and how the pieces passed through dealers and collectors, including mining magnate Joseph Hirshhorn and the Disney family, before reaching the Smithsonian's cases on the Mall. It's a story about a price set twice on the same objects.