Benin bronzes: Germany and Nigeria sign restitution agreements

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Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Nigerian Minister of Culture Lai Mohammed, Nigerian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Zubairo Dada and Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth: joint declaration signed

Photo: LISI NIESNER / REUTERS

Germany and Nigeria have cleared the way for the repatriation of art objects stolen during the colonial era.

With a »joint declaration on the return of the Benin bronzes«, a framework was created in Berlin on Friday for transferring ownership of the valuable pieces from German museums to Nigeria.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (both Green), Nigerian Minister of Culture Lai Mohammed and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Zubairo Dada signed the four-page and twelve-point agreement, which provides for an “unconditional return”.

At the same time, both sides want »that the German public museums and institutions can continue to exhibit the Benin bronzes as loans«.

Two bronzes from Berlin holdings were handed over immediately afterwards: a relief plate with a king (Oba) and four attendants as well as a commemorative head of a king.

The bronzes arrived in Berlin at the end of the 19th century in the luggage of the consul and businessman Eduard Schmidt, where they were sold in 1898 to what was then the Royal Museum of Ethnology in Berlin.

Around 1100 of the artistic pieces from the palace of the former Kingdom of Benin, which today belongs to Nigeria as the Edo State, can still be found in around 20 German museums.

Most of the objects come from looting in 1897, when Oba's royal palace was razed to the ground by British soldiers.

feb/dpa