London Museum Starts Process of Returning Looted Benin Artifacts Back to Nigeria
The two artifacts, which include a bronze cockerel and a bust that were looted from Nigeria over 125 years ago by the British military force, are placed on a table inside the Oba of Benin palace where it was looted in Benin City, mid-western, Nigeria, on February 19, 2022. 
Thousands of art objects were seized by the British 125 years ago during a raid on the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now modern-day Nigeria. The artifacts eventually made their way into museums and private collections all over the world. Recently, the West African nation has intensified its efforts to have these cultural items returned. The Horniman Museum, a small museum in south-east London which houses a collection of 72 artifacts that were looted from Benin City in 1897, officially handed over ownership of six items to the Nigerian government on Monday.The objects, including two 16th-century Benin bronze plaques stolen from the royal palace, were handed to the director general of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), Abba Tijani, during an official ceremony at the museum. Six items, which were chosen as being representative of the museum’s collection, are part of the first wave of the physical repatriation of Benin objects from the Horniman. According to the agreement between the NCMM and the Horniman, the remaining 66 cultural items will stay in Britain on loan for the next 12 months; a second phase of repatriations is expected in the future.The six objects returning from the Horniman museum are: a brass plaque depicting Oba Orhogbua, king of the Benin Empire (1550 – 1578), holding a staff representing authority and power; a brass plaque depicting Agban, the deputy commander in chief of the Benin Army, towards the end of the reign of Oba Orhogbua and the start of the reign of Oba Ehengbuda (1578-1608); a brass hip ornament depicting a face or mask; an ivory staff of office depicting a carved relief figure of an Oba (ruler); a carved wooden box frame likely used for holding a mirror; an ivory arm cuff with heads and abstract shapes, part of royal regalia. It is said to be the first time when a UK government-funded institution agreed to hand back treasures taken by British troops. Two other Benin bronzes that have already been returned from the UK to Nigeria include a cockerel sculpture held by Jesus College, Cambridge, and the head of an Oba held by Aberdeen University. The museum called the move “a moral and appropriate” response to the request from the NCMM. The Horniman’s chief executive, Nick Merriman, stated that the items should be returned as “they were acquired with force” and the ceremony was “the next step in a fruitful and ongoing relationship” with the Nigerian government on this issue. The director general of the NCMM, in his turn, said he felt relief when he looked at the items that were set to be repatriated to their place of origin.
“I feel that the right thing has been done and the Benin people and Africa have the opportunity to see and interact with these objects that they have not been able to do for many decades,” he said, as cited by media.
Tijani, later claimed that approximately 5,000 Benin bronzes are now “scattered” around the world. During the ceremony, he expressed his hope saying that other museums holding artifacts taken by force from Benin City would be encouraged by the Horniman’s example. The director general expects that the ongoing talks with various institutions will finally result in deals enabling the cultural items to be returned not only from the UK, but also from the US and Germany.
AfricaA Look at Artifacts Taken by Colonialists Yet to Be Returned to Africa31 October, 16:50 GMTIn particular, the ceremony marking the transfer of ownership of 72 looted items from the Horniman museum is expected to increase the pressure on the British museum, which holds the greatest number of Benin items. The British Museum has resisted calls made by Nigerian officials to return the objects in its collection, stating it is prevented from doing so by the British Museum Act of 1963 that prohibits the permanent removal of the items in its possession. During the colonial era, Europeans seized a huge number of art objects from the African continent, including brass plates, diamonds, human remains, gold, silver, and other treasures. The Benin Bronzes are a collection of several thousand brass plates from the palace of the ruler of the Benin kingdom, dating back to the 13th -16th centuries. They were stolen in 1897, when British troops pillaged and burned the royal palace. All the royal treasures were eventually transported to European and North American museums or made their way into private collections. After the era of colonialism came to an end, some European countries started to return artifacts to their historical homeland. For example, the Natural History Museum in London and the University of Cambridge have recently agreed to cooperate with Zimbabwe in order to repatriate human remains of Zimbabwean origin. Moreover, the Digital Benin platform has been recently launched. It is the most complete digital database of traditional West African art objects, the Benin Bronzes of the Edo culture. 
AfricaInternational Team Creates Database of Benin Bronzes Stolen by Colonialists10 November, 16:52 GMTThe data is provided by 131 museums in 20 countries. Some of the institutions that took part in this project, including Berlin’s Ethnological Museum, Washington’s Smithsonian Institution, and Oxford and Cambridge Universities, have returned Benin Bronzes from their collections to Nigeria, or at least promised to do so. Nevertheless, many African historical artifacts are still waiting for their time to be returned home.
