Items looted by British soldiers from the Kingdom of Benin (in present-day Nigeria) during the invasion of Benin in 1897 are to be returned to Nigeria, but only for three years, after which they will return to what is now the British Museum, home to some of the Benin’s most valuable artifacts in all of Europe.
An agreement reached in October 2018 between the Benin Dialogue Group (BDG) and the British Museum in London sees “some of the most iconic works” sent to Nigeria to be exhibited at the Royal Museum of Benin in Edo State, just three years before they returned to the British Museum, where they have been on display for decades.
“The key agenda item (at the October meeting) was how partners can work together to establish a museum in Benin City with a rotation of Benin works of art from a consortium of European museums,” the spokesman of the British Museum said. He added: “The museums in attendance have all agreed to lend artefacts to the Benin Royal Museum on a rotating basis, to provide advice as requested on building and exhibition design, and to cooperate with the Nigerian partners in developing training, funding, and a legal framework for the display in a new planned museum.”
The British Museum’s slow return to works stolen from Nigeria was accelerated by French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that his country would return 26 objects looted from the Kingdom of Dahomey during the Second Franco Dahomey War in 1892. The announcement has been made many times. A few months after Macron, in a joint appearance on Press
with Benin President Patrice Talon, announced the creation of a commission to study the issue of returning looted items to legitimate African countries.
In , France’s declaration of the need for an “immediate” return of antiquities sparked a discussion about the return of all African antiquities to European museums, particularly in the context of news from the United States. In October, U.K decided to temporarily return the Nigerian items.
The exact nature and number of items that will be returned to Nigeria over the agreed three years is not yet known, but the committees were expected to meet in Nigeria in 2019 to discuss the agreement in detail.
