Nigeria: A German government delegation is in Lagos to return twenty works.
A German government delegation is in Nigeria to return twenty works of art looted by Germany during colonisation, including bronzes from the former kingdom of Benin.
In total, the German government has pledged to return more than 1,130 treasures looted during colonisation.
The bronzes were looted from the former kingdom of Benin in southern Nigeria in 1897. This was during the British expedition that destroyed Benin City and during which the British took away thousands of ivory and metal sculptures that were later distributed to some 20 museums in Germany.
The German delegation is made up of Annalena Baerbock, the German Foreign Minister, and Claudia Roth, Minister of State for Culture.
The museums concerned by these restitutions are the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, the Grassi Museum in Leipzig, the MARKK in Hamburg, the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne, and the Ethnological Museum in Berlin. The latter alone has 530 historical objects from the ancient kingdom of Benin, including 440 bronzes, considered the most important collection after the British Museum in London.
The restitution is part of a series of measures taken recently by Germany to try to come to terms with its colonial past. But it is not only Berlin that has taken this step.
Following the report by Senegalese social scientist Felwine Sarr and French art historian Bénédicte Savoy in 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron has placed himself at the forefront of those calling for the restitution of cultural property looted from Africa. In the meantime, some countries, such as Belgium, have caught up and Germany has also decided to follow suit and proceed with these restitutions since June 2022.
On Twitter, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that the restitution will “heal the wounds of the past” and “take into account Germany’s dark colonial history”. In total, more than 1,130 works of art have been stored or exhibited in German ethnological museums. These include cultural objects, artistically made sculptures and reliefs in bronze and brass, as well as works in ivory, coral and wood.
Miss OLY
