A London museum has agreed to return 72 objects looted from Benin City in 1897 to the Nigerian government.
The Horniman Museum and Gardens, located in south London, announced the transfer in a press release on Sunday.
All objects were taken from the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now the capital of Edo state in southern Nigeria, during a British military operation in February 1897, the museum said.
The artifacts include 12 brass plates that are part of a genus known as “Benin bronze”.
These bronze sculptures were created at least as early as the 16th century to decorate the royal court in Benin, according to the British Museum.
In 1897, British forces launched a “bloody and devastating” military occupation of the Kingdom of Benin and thousands of works of art were stolen and taken to the UK as “spoils of war”, the museum said.
The Horniman’s Benin collection also includes other brass objects looted during the occupation, such as an altarpiece, bells, fans and baskets.
“We very much welcome this decision by the curators of the Horniman Museum and Gardens,” said Abba Tijani, director general of the National Commission on Museums and Monuments of Nigeria, in the statement.
“Following the Charity Commission’s endorsement, we look forward to a productive discussion on loan agreements and collaborations between the National Commission on Museums and Monuments and Horniman,” Tijani said.
The decision comes as a victory for Nigeria and other African countries struggling to recover cultural artifacts seized during the military occupation and held in museums, mainly in Europe but also in the United States and Australia.
Nigeria’s national commission requested the return of the items in January, Horniman said. Some of the objects can still be loaned to Horniman for display and research, according to the statement.
Eve Salomon, chairman of the museum’s curators, called the transfer “moral and proper.”
“The evidence is very clear that these objects were forcibly acquired, and the external consultation supported our view that it is moral and appropriate to return their property to Nigeria,” Salomon said in the statement.
“Honiman is pleased to be able to take this step and we look forward to working with NCMM to ensure long-term care for these precious artifacts.”
The Horniman follows in the footsteps of several other museums that returned their looted Benin bronzes to Nigeria.
In February, the University of Aberdeen and Jesus College at the University of Cambridge returned two bronzes from Benin. Last year, the French government returned 26 works of art seized from Benin in 1892.
And in November 2021, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., removed all of its Benin bronzes from display and announced plans to repatriate them.
Source: CNN Brasil
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