London’s Horniman Museum and Gardens agreed last week to return a collection of Benin Bronzes that colonial forces looted in 1897 to Nigeria.
This is due to the recent pressure on European institutions to repatriate artifacts taken by force and stolen during the era of colonisation.
The museum located in London’s southeast said 72 items will be transferred to the Nigerian government.
The items include the world-famous Benin Bronzes – 12 brass plaques – and a brass cockerel altarpiece, ivory and brass ceremonial objects, brass bells and a key to the king’s palace, news agency Deutsche Welle reported.
Earlier in 2022, Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) sent a formal request to the museum urging them to return the artifacts.
“The Horniman is pleased to be able to take this step, and we look forward to working with the NCMM to secure longer term care for these precious artifacts,” Eve Salomon, who is also among the museum’s board of trustees, said in a statement.
The statement highlights that the artifacts were acquired by force or stolen. It said that is moral and appropriate to return them to Nigeria.
The museum also said that it looked forward to discussions on possible loaning of the artifacts in the future and collaborations with its Nigerian counterparts.
The report by Deutsche Welle said the museum only possesses a small share of the Benin Bronzes which once upon a time adorned the interiors of the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin. The kingdom is located in what is now southwestern Nigeria.
Not only the Benin Bronzes, Britishers, French, Belgian, German and other colonial powers looted thousands of treasures, sculptures and other artworks from African nations, Asian nations and from the old kingdoms of South and Central America.
These African artifacts date from the 16th to the 18th centuries. These artifacts were stolen by the British colonists who attacked and occupied Benin City at the end of the 19th century.
These artifacts are now spread across the globe. The British Museum itself houses more than 900 such artifacts from Benin. The National Museums Scotland has another 74.
German museums have more than 1,000 such artifacts which are spread around 20 museums. The Berlin’s Ethnological Museum, which is often considered the most important museum outside the British Museum, houses the greatest collection.
The Nigerian government in recent years has ramped up the pressure on European countries to hand back the Benin Bronzes. It wants to build a museum in Benin City, in southern Edo province, where these repatriated treasures will find their new home.
Nigeria and Germany in July signed a deal to begin the return of hundreds of Benin Bronzes beginning a major effort by an European nation to repatriate the looted artworks.
France handed over 26 pieces, known as the Abomey Treasures, in 2021 which the French forces looted from the 19th century Dahomey kingdom in present-day Benin.
(with inputs from Deutsche Welle)
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