Nigeria and Benin recover stolen colonial art

Nigerians celebrate the return of two bronzes from Benin looted by the British 125 years ago, and Benin opens an exhibition with pieces returned by France. Africa is pressing for more artifacts to return, as two artifacts from Benin have been repatriated, 125 years after British soldiers stole them from West Africa. Saturday’s ceremony (19/02) marked the return of two art pieces, one representing a rooster and the other the head of a king, to the Oba Palace in Benin City, Nigeria. “It’s not just art, but things that enhance the meaning of our spirituality,” said Charles Edosunmoan, a spokesman for the Oba Palace. The Benin Bronze Pieces are a group of thousands of objects created from the 16th century that housed the Royal Palace of Benin City when it was looted by British forces in 1897. They are scattered today in museums in Europe and the United States. The pieces, handed over to Oba Palace at the University of Aberdeen and Jesus College Cambridge in the UK, were the first institutions in the world to return a bronze Benin to Nigeria last year – the ceremony took place only this year. At the time, Professor Aba Issa Tijani, Director General of the Nigerian National Commission on Museums and Antiquities, urged “museums and other institutions around the world to seize this opportunity and follow suit.” Many pieces of art are still outside Africa during the colonial era, many African art pieces were acquired illegally and ended up in European collections. As a result, an estimated 80% to 90% of sub-Saharan Africa’s cultural heritage is in Western museums. The Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris alone houses some 70,000 African objects, and the British Museum in London houses tens of thousands of other artifacts. The United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany have received requests from African countries to return looted treasures of the colonial era. In April 2021, Germany announced a plan to ship hundreds of Bronze Benin ships to Nigeria starting this year. Benin exhibits returned by France While Nigerians welcome the return of the two bronzes to Benin City, Nigeria, the president of neighboring Benin inaugurated an exhibition of historical artworks returned by France in 2021. The 26 pieces were stolen in 1892 by French colonial forces from the former Kingdom of Dahomey in present-day southern Benin. . Culture Minister Jean-Michel Abembola said the exhibition “Benin’s Art Yesterday and Today” was “giving back to the Benin people a part of their soul, a part of their history and their dignity.” Abimbola said talks were underway about returning other pieces, including a statue of the god Jo, still in the Louvre in Paris. (Reuters, Agence France-Presse)

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