Cologne wants to return Benin bronzes to Nigeria

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Nanette Snoep, Director of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Benin bronzes: The works of art could also be shown in German museums in the future

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Marius Becker / picture alliance / dpa

The city of Cologne wants to return its Benin bronzes from the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum to Nigeria.

As the city announced, the city council has decided to prepare the return in coordination with the Federal Foreign Office and the State Ministry for Culture.

Fourth largest collection of Benin court artworks

The inventory of the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum contains Benin court artworks from Nigeria, which were stolen from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin by the British army in 1897.

The works were then auctioned in Europe.

A total of 96 of these ended up in the Cologne museum over time.

It is the fourth largest collection of Benin court art in Germany.

The Federal Foreign Office is preparing a political framework agreement between Nigeria and Germany for the spring.

The transfer of ownership does not rule out that some of the bronzes will be shown in German museums in the future, said the director of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Nanette Snoep.

»The decision then lies with Nigeria.

This means that the power relations established by colonialism have been reversed.«

Last summer, Baden-Württemberg also declared that it would return bronzes stolen from the former Kingdom of Benin to Nigeria.

The Stuttgart Linden Museum was commissioned to identify sculptures and reliefs for return and to enter into discussions with the Nigerian side.

This is intended to implement the agreement made in the Benin Declaration on the handling of Benin bronzes in German museums.

A year ago, a group of museum experts and politicians came to an agreement that German museums should return the first art treasures of the Benin bronzes, which were considered looted, to Nigeria.

"We are facing up to the historical and moral responsibility to bring Germany's colonial past to light and to come to terms with it," said Monika Grütters (CDU), Minister of State for Culture at the time.

evh/dpa