Germany to return to Nigeria the bronzes of Benin looted at the end of the 19th century by English soldiers

The Director of Museums and Special Collections at the University of Aberdeen, Neil Curtis, poses next to a bronze sculpture from Benin on March 17. KALYAN VEERA / AFP

The German government is preparing, in an unexpected and historic twist, to return to Nigeria the famous Benin bronzes, which were looted by English soldiers in the colonial wars in 1897. Of the part acquired by Germany at the beginning of the last century, 530 sculptures in possession of Berlin were to be exhibited in a room in the Humboldt Forum.

The director of the museum, Harmut Dorgeloch, confirmed last Monday to the

portal

that they will be returned possibly in September because "they were largely acquired illegally."

According to the Foreign Ministry, the ministry's head of culture, Andreas Görgen, visited Nigeria last week.

His objective was to formalize the collaboration with the future museum of African art to be built in Benin City, and to initiate negotiations on the return of the bronzes.

The first member of the government to speak did so on Wednesday.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas argued that "a sincere approach to colonial history also includes the issue of the restitution of cultural property."

"It is pure justice," he said.

He added that they are working with stakeholders in both Nigeria and Germany "to agree on a common framework."

That same day, the Board of Trustees of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, made up of federal and state representatives, paved the way by stating in a statement that they considered the return of the bronzes as an option.

Although the adventures of this group were not a secret and were for years in the Ethnological Museum of Dahlem, the cultural treasure became a heavy historical burden when it became known that it would be permanently exhibited in a room of the brand new Humboldt Forum, built in the same place where the Prussian Imperial Palace stood, in the heart of Berlin.

This space, described at the time by the Minister of State for Culture, Monika Grütters, as the "largest cultural project in Europe", was inaugurated virtually due to the pandemic on December 16 last.

It was conceived to house the collections of the Museum of Asian Art and the Ethnological Museum, both with pieces of controversial origins.

The bronzes became cultural-political dynamite.

They come from the Kingdom of Benin, a pre-colonial and highly developed monarchy whose capital was located in the southwest of what is now Nigeria.

By 1897, the Benin Empire had grown too powerful for British colonial power, and was literally reduced to rubble with a punitive expedition;

before that, English soldiers sacked the palaces.

The transfer of the bronzes from Benin to the Humboldt Forum in Germany revived the country's dark colonial past and the press wondered if it was right for the looted African treasure to be displayed.

In an interview published Friday in

Collège de France historian Bénédicte Savoy, who criticized the advisory board of the Humboldt Forum in 2017, lashed out at the decision.

"It is less and less likely that those bronzes can be displayed without being embarrassed."

This return is not the first gesture that the Germans have to repatriate artistic elements.

Another case was that of the bust of Nefertiti, which was about to be returned to Egypt during the dictatorship of the Third Reich.

His stay in Berlin was marked by a direct intervention by Hitler, who defeated, in 1933, an initiative of Marshal Hermann Göring, then Prime Minister of Prussia, to return the famous bust as a proof of the Reich's friendship. towards the Arab country.