If the Board of Trustees of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation approve the move, the artefacts will be restituted to Nigeria
Germany is likely to return a number of metal sculptures and reliefs known as the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. The move follows discussions between Andreas Görgen, the head of the Foreign Ministry’s culture department, and Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki in Benin City last week.
The objects, which are not all bronze, had been expected to form part of the exhibition at the Humboldt Forum, a new institution on Berlin’s Museum Island which will mainly house the non-European collections of the Berlin State Museums. The opening of the museum has been delayed by the pandemic.
Obaseki told the Nigerian Observer ‘As you know, culture is a living thing; the artefacts that we are dealing with today are a repetition of our culture at a certain point in time’.
‘We believe that our collaboration should transcend to not only returning the works but also understanding the significant and meaning of those works from our history. There are many things that we share in common. Yes, the objects are from Benin but today they are global. So, the idea of having a universal display is something that we cannot run away from’.
Nigeria is planning a museum, the Benin Institute, comprising a museum, art gallery and research institute, housed in a new building designed by the British architect David Adjaye. If the Board of Trustees of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation approve the restitution move, the artefacts will be restituted, with Germany providing training for the Nigerian museum employees and sending expertise to archaeological excavations in the region.
Created from the thirteenth century onwards by the Edo people, the artefacts include over a thousand objects that originally decorated the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, located in what is now south Nigeria. The majority were looted by the British during the Benin Expedition of 1897, many now residing in the British Museum. Germany was one of a number of European countries to buy the stolen property.
The move by Germany adds pressure on the British Museum to respond accordingly. So far the London institution has resisted calls for restitution saying that no formal request has been made. The museum, alongside the German institutions and museums in Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden are part of the Benin Dialogue Group which has collaborated on the founding of the Benin Institute.
Last week British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ruled out the return of the Parthenon Marbles, also held by the British Museum, to Greece.
