Editing Brass (section)

===Africa===
[[File:Arte yoruba, nigeria, testa da ife, 12-15mo secolo.JPG|thumb|upright|12th century "[[Bronze Head from Ife]]", actually of "heavily leaded zinc-brass"]]
Some of the most famous objects in [[African art]] are the [[lost wax]] castings of West Africa, mostly from what is now [[Nigeria]], produced first by the [[Kingdom of Ife]] and then the [[Benin Empire]]. Though normally described as "bronzes", the [[Benin Bronzes]], now mostly in the [[British Museum]] and other Western collections, and the large portrait heads such as the [[Bronze Head from Ife]] of "heavily leaded zinc-brass" and the [[Bronze Head of Queen Idia]], both also British Museum, are better described as brass, though of variable compositions.<ref>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=618380 "The Ife Head"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160920155753/https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=618380 |date=20 September 2016 }} on the British Museum collection database. Accessed 26 May 2014</ref>  Work in brass or bronze continued to be important in [[Benin art]] and other West African traditions such as [[Akan goldweights]], where the metal was regarded as a more valuable material than in Europe.