Germany to return looted Benin bronzes to Nigeria

The first returns are expected to take place in 2022.

CAPE TOWN, April 30 (ANA) – The German government on Thursday announced that it will return looted Benin bronzes to Nigeria, with the first returns expected to take place in 2022.

In a joint declaration published on Thursday, Germany’s Ministry of Culture, state ministers and museum directors committed to “substantive returns” of Benin bronzes with the “greatest possible transparency”.

“In this way we would like to contribute to understanding and reconciliation with the descendants of the people who were robbed of their cultural treasures during the colonial era,” said Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters.

Grütters added that a concrete and realistic timetable has been agreed with the institutions concerned and their sponsors, as well as the Federal Foreign Office, in connection with the repatriation of the bronzes.

The parties involved agreed that the contact point for collections from colonial contexts in Germany will have a list of all Benin bronzes owned by the museums on its website by June 15.

The statement further revealed that the museums will comprehensively document the origins of these objects by the end of 2021 and make them publicly accessible on the website of the contact point.

According to international reports, the looted bronzes were distributed across the world and hundreds are held in German museums.

Nigeria has sought their return for decades.

In March, Scotland’s University of Aberdeen said that it will repatriate a Benin bronze sculpture to a Nigerian museum as its acquisition is considered to have been “extremely immoral”.

The bronze sculpture depicting a king of Benin is described as having been looted by British soldiers in Benin City in 1897 and was later acquired by the university in 1957 at an auction.

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher