About 20 artefacts that were looted as far back as the 19th Century has been returned to Abuja.
According to Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock the return of the Benin Bronzes were made possible as a result of the pact that was made to transfer more than a thousand of the object.
Earlier in the year the deal to return those objects was Germany doing their bit to rewrite the history of the ‘dark colonial age’.
While speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, Ms. Baerbock stated that the return was a restitution in righting some wrongs in the past.
Among the objects returned were some of the famous ceremonial heads, an ivory carving, as well as a decorated plaque.
Moves to return objects stolen in the colonial era have been gathering momentum in recent years as European countries and museums grapple with how artefacts came into their possession.
The term Benin Bronzes refers to thousands of metal sculptures, plaques and carvings made between the 15th and 19th Centuries and looted by British troops in 1897 from the West African kingdom of Benin, in modern-day Nigeria’s Edo state.
The sculptures, prized for their beauty and technical artistry, are of spiritual and historical significance for the people from that part of Nigeria. Their theft still remains a point of pain for the descendants of those from the ancient Benin kingdom.
Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments has issued formal repatriation requests to museums across the world.
In 2026, the government plans to open the Edo Museum of West African Art in Benin City, which is being designed by British-Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye, to house the largest collection of Benin Bronzes ever assembled.
