Just as the parents of a fraudulently adopted child might boast of the expanded opportunities they can offer, the Met implies that its globe-spanning, comparative collection makes a better home for such works than their parochial places of origin. Detailed information about Benin’s warring and slaving reminds visitors that the looted were also looters, though I searched in vain for similar labels about European palace décor. More idealistically, a label titled “Benin Court Art at the Met” informs us that Alain Locke, godfather of the Harlem Renaissance, wanted “the genius of African art to be widely accessible in a public New York institution.” It’s a recasting worthy of Benin’s metalworkers. A white billionaire’s bequest of colonial plunder is, really, the fulfillment of a Black philosopher’s dream.