Germany has gave back 20 Benin Bronzes from its museums to Nigeria, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Tuesday, in a move that is the latest for a European country to return cultural artefacts to their African homeland.
The handovers signify the increasing realization of a responsibility towards returning back artefacts taken away from Africa by the white lords during the colonial period. Germany approved such gesture and started returning Benin Bronzes kept in its museums last year.
At the start of this year, Germany signed a statement with Nigeria to give back all 1,130 Benin Bronzes, copper alloy relief sculptures, various with court figures, in German public museums.
At the ceremony handing over the artefacts, Foreign Minister of Nigeria Geoffrey Onyeama and information minister Lai Mohammed attended the ceremony which also witnessed Germany’s minister for culture and media Claudia Roth and directors of museums in Germany.
“Today we are taking a step that was long overdue: We are returning 20 Benin bronzes from German museums to where they belong, to their homeland,” Baerbock told reporters in Abuja.
Germany had kept some of the Benin Bronze artefacts in its custody for almost two centuries. Some were kept privately while some were held in casinos, said Nigerian officials.
British soldiers took away thousands of metal castings and sculptures in a raid on the then-separate Kingdom of Benin in 1897.
Some of the Benin Bronze artefacts had been in German custody for nearly two centuries with some in private collections and casinos, Nigerian officials said.
The Bronzes were sold at auction and sent to museums across the world, with the largest collection being in London.
The British Museum in London, which has the largest and most significant collection of Benin Bronzes, is expected to feel more pressure as a result of the repatriation.
The British Museum was urged to release the more than 900 Benin Bronzes it possesses by Nigeria’s minister of communication.
