Approaching the Benin City National Museum in Nigeria’s southern state of Edo — paint peeling, lawns weathered, stranded within a busy roundabout — there is no credible hint of the treasures inside. But once you step into its galleries, away from the heaving traffic, the grandeur of a defeated kingdom comes strikingly, painfully, to life.

The museum tells the dramatic story of the Benin kingdom from the earliest monarchs around 1,000 years ago, through the reign of Oba (King) Ovonramwen, who was deposed by the British in 1897, and on to its afterlife in independent Nigeria, where Ovonramwen’s descendants have been restored to their title, if not their power. (Benin City and the oba of Benin have no connection to the nearby Republic of Benin.)

The exhibits include swords, pots, instruments and ornaments, including many objects crafted from brass, wood, ivory and other materials. But they are only a fraction of the original national treasure known now as the Benin Bronzes, which were scattered across the world after the British troops sacked Benin City. Only now, with the launch of a digital database drawing on more than 100 museums, is a full picture of what was lost coming into view.