Return of Benin bronzes: Minister's trip to Nigeria
Created: 12/16/2022, 5:43 p.m
A museum employee packs one of the Benin bronzes that were put together in the Ethnological Museum Dahlem in Berlin for return to Nigeria.
© Wolfgang Kumm/dpa
After decades of sluggishly coming to terms with colonialism, the federal government and German museums are marking an international breakthrough.
Two ministers want to set an example in Nigeria.
Berlin - A historically unprecedented act of coming to terms with the colonial past has reached a new level.
With the return of valuable Benin bronzes in Nigeria, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth want to send an international signal.
The Greens politicians are traveling to the crisis-ridden West African country from Sunday to Tuesday to personally hand over the first copies of the valuable pieces of art to the Nigerian side.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (l) and Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth travel to Nigeria.
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa
More than 1,100 of the works from the palace of the former Kingdom of Benin, which today belongs to Nigeria, have so far been found in around 20 German museums.
The objects, which are made of ivory and other materials in addition to bronze, come largely from British looting in 1897.
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The spokesman for the Federal Foreign Office announced in Berlin that Baerbock and Roth initially wanted to return a total of 20 Benin bronzes from German collections to the capital Abuja.
The fact that the restitution flight could be realized this year is thanks to the good cooperation between the federal government, the states, cities and museums.
It also shows how serious Germany is about coming to terms with its colonial past.
In addition to Roth, Baerbock will also be accompanied by the Baden-Württemberg Art Minister Petra Olschowski (Greens) and the directors of the five museums that own the largest collections of Benin bronzes in Germany.
These are the Berlin Ethnological Museum, the Dresden/Leipzig Museum of Ethnology, the Rothenbaum Museum in Hamburg, the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne and the Linden Museum in Stuttgart.
Baerbock and Roth will have ten Benin pieces from Berlin, three each from Dresden, Hamburg and Cologne, and one work from Stuttgart.
Among the objects that will be returned is the 18th-century royal throne stool of Oba Eresoyen.
The piece, which weighs around 90 kilos, was still on display in Berlin's Humboldt Forum up until this week.
Transfer of ownership to Nigeria
In the summer, the federal government signed a declaration of intent with Nigeria for the transfer of ownership of the objects from the German museums.
Since then, the respective sponsors of the museums have been negotiating with the responsible authorities in Nigeria.
The museums in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Stuttgart have already transferred ownership of the holdings to the Nigerian side.
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It's not just about direct restitutions.
The four agreements concluded so far also regulate how many and which of the art treasures can remain on loan in Germany or be exchanged again and again.
For example, of the 514 bronzes in Berlin so far, 168 will remain in the depot of the Ethnological Museum as long-term loans and will be shown alternately in the Humboldt Forum.
Such regulations were also agreed for the other museums.
In addition, extensive cooperation between Nigerian and German museums is planned or already in progress.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, to which the Berlin museum belongs, spoke of a “model case”.
“Something new has really emerged from this transfer of ownership: a close working relationship, a new relationship with Nigeria, with the global south as a whole,” he said as the stool was removed.
The first restitutions this year are also important for the Nigerian partners.
Nigeria is around two and a half times the size of Germany and, with around 220 million inhabitants, is the most populous and economically strongest country in Africa.
The main industry is oil production.
The Islamist terrorist militia Boko Haram and the group "Islamic State Province West Africa" are responsible for serious attacks in the country with numerous fatalities.
dpa