The Netherlands returns over a hundred Benin Bronzes to Nigeria
119 ‘Benin Bronzes’ removed 128 years ago by the British Empire were returned to Nigeria by The Netherlands, Africanews reported on the 22nd of June.
In early 2022, Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments made a formal repatriation request of every country in possession of the Benin Bronzes. Since then, Britain and the United States have unconditionally returned their collections of the relics in question. Now, the Netherlands has joined them by returning more items than both of them combined.
This has spelled a remarkably joyous event for Nigeria and Benin. Ewuare II, the monarch of the Benin culture, attributed the restitution of his culture’s invaluable reliquary to divine intervention. The commission’s director, Olugbile Holloway, rejoiced in the largest repatriation of the artifacts to date, and assured that his institution would continue its work. Marieke Van Bommel, director of the Wereld Museum, said that the Dutch government is committed to returning artifacts that “do not belong to the country”.
The Benin Bronzes were taken as plunder during the sack of the Kingdom of Benin by a British military expedition in 1897. Over a century later, Nigeria – wherein much of the former heartland of the Kingdom of Benin lies – is effecting a long awaited resolution to the aftermath of the conflict. This event punctuates the geopolitical ascendancy of the country with the largest population in Africa, occurring in the same year as Nigeria’s admittance to BRICS as a partner country.
Africanews, Maghrebi.org
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