Ownership of Benin Bronzes in Cologne Returned to Nigeria

Ninety-two Benin Bronzes from Cologne's Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum now officially belong to Nigeria again.

The mayor of the western German city, Henriette Reker, and the Director General of Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Abba Isa Tijani, signed an agreement on the transfer of ownership in Cologne on Thursday.

"This is a milestone in a decades-long, difficult debate about the restitution of looted art, with national and international significance," Reker said.

Henriette Reker (R), Lord Mayor of Cologne, symbolically hands over a bronze key from the Kingdom of Benin to Abba Isa Tijani, Director General of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments. The Cologne City Council had decided to return 92 Benin bronzes from the collection of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum to Nigeria. Photo credit: Oliver Berg/dpa

The British army looted the bronze sculptures in 1897 from the ruling palace of the Kingdom of Benin, located in what is now Nigeria. The works of art were auctioned all over Europe. Some 1,100 of them are in about 20 German museums. This summer, Germany and Nigeria agreed on a process to transfer ownership of the looted objects, including repatriating some of them.

Three of the artworks from Cologne are to be brought back to Nigeria this month, and 52 of the bronzes are to be gradually repatriated from 2023. The two sides agreed that some 37 items would remain on loan to Cologne for an initial period of 10 years.

Source: DPA- Germany Today

Header image: Benin Bronzes. British Museum. Wikimedia Commons