It was long puzzled where the origin of bronze casting could be assumed. One legend says that a king of the Ife brought the craft to Benin in his entourage in the 14th century. However, since the bronze foundry guild in Benin was founded around the year 1,000 and it can therefore be assumed that casting had been going on for longer than the guild's existence, it is more plausible to assume that the Ife style was cast in Benin and then ordered bronzes exported to Ile-Ife. To make periods after better finished objects seems equally implausible. On the basis of modern forgeries, the decline of the culture claimed by many ethnologists cannot be sustained either. On the contrary, the technique of lost casting was improved.

Cf. traditional literature rejected by P.Herrmann::
Frank WILLETT: Ife. Metropole afrikanischer Kunst, Bergisch Gladbach 1967, S. 36.
Barbara PLANKENSTEINER (Hg.): Benin. Könige und Rituale. Höfische Kunst aus Nigeria, Wien 2007, S. 272.