The Netherlands is on Wednesday returning 113 stolen works of art known as the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, culture minister Eppo Bruins has confirmed.
The bronzes were stolen by British soldiers from the king’s palace in Benin City in 1897 and were scattered around the world. Some were in the British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, others in private collections.
The items now being returned by the Netherlands were mainly housed in the World Heritage museum Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam. The city council is also returning six items.
“This restitution is contributing to the restoration of a historic injustice that is still felt today,” Bruins said. “Heritage is essential for telling and experiencing the history of a country and its communities. The Benin Bronzes are therefore indispensable to Nigeria, and it is right that they are being returned.”
Olugbile Holloway, the director general of the Nigerian national museums commission, is in Rotterdam to sign the transfer documents and said the return of the Dutch bronzes is the largest restitution of antiquities stolen by the British in 1897.
“We hope that this will serve as a positive example for other countries worldwide in the restitution of lost or looted antiquities,” Holloway said.
This is the fifth time that the Netherlands has decided to return art on the advice of a special committee set up to look into stolen colonial art. Works have already been returned to Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia.
Around half the 375,000 objects in the collection of the Wereldmuseum – created last year from a merger of the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal and the Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden – have a colonial connection.
Credit: Dutch News
