Federal Government of Nigeria has recovered 31 Benin bronzes from three museums in the United States 125 years after they were stolen.
Lifestyle Nigeria reports that 29 artefacts were returned by the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art; one was recovered from the National Gallery of Art, and another from the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, and the Director-General of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Abba Tijjani witnessed the transfer of the artefacts.
Representatives of the Oba of Benin, Aghatise Erediauwa also witnessed the repatriation ceremony on Tuesday at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
The Minister said, “We have also received or are in the process of receiving repatriated artefacts from The Netherlands, the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Mexico, the University of Cambridge in the UK, and Germany, among others.
“Let me state clearly that Nigeria, as part of the global cultural heritage tradition, will not depart from the norms already established by practitioners in this field.
“Therefore, our museums will sustain the tradition of exchanges and collaborations with museums in the United States and other parts of the world.
“Nigeria looks forward to working with these institutions on joint exhibitions and other educational exchanges. By returning the artefacts, these institutions are together writing new pages in history.
“Their brave decision to return the timeless artworks is worth emulating.”
‘GERMANY TO RETURN 1,130 BENIN BRONZES’
On the 1,130 Benin Bronzes that Germany is about to return, Mohammed said Nigeria has signed an agreement with the German government for the repatriation of the looted artefacts.
The Minister said Nigeria is getting positive responses from France and Mexico to also return stolen artefacts.
He said the world has realised that it is an ethical and moral issue to return the artefacts to their owners.
Mohammed said, “This is important for the British Museum to understand and for the British government to know because I was also in the British museum to ask them to return thousands of the artefacts in its custody.
“The standard response is that until the British parliament changes the status, they are not in position to do so.
“The US and Germany are now seeing that this matter is not of law but of morality, it’s about doing the right thing. I hope that the British government will also learn from the two countries and do same.”
The Minister noted that Nigeria is planning to sign an agreement with the UK on November 28 to return about 86 other artefacts from various museums in the country.