Looted Benin bronzes dating back to the 19th Century are to be returned to the country from Germany.
This is as announced by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which oversees Berlin’s museums.
The Foundation’s President, Hermann Parzinger, made this disclosure in a statement on Tuesday.
The Foundation runs the Berlin Ethnological Museum, which holds around 530 artefacts from the former kingdom of Benin, including around 440 bronzes, which were looted by the British in 1897.
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation’s board added that “the aim should be substantial returns in 2022 already,” stating that it plans on discussing with the Nigerian government “how we can show Benin Bronzes in Germany,” including in Berlin’s Humboldt Forum, a newly built complex that will house much of the city’s overseas collections.
Note that European and Western museums have started the process of returning stolen artefacts from Nigeria and signing deals with the Nigerian government to display in their museums.
This is also with a report of the repatriation of a 600-year-old Ife Terracotta, which was smuggled out of Nigeria with a forged document to the Netherlands, through Ghana in 2019.
