XO’s: US returns 23 looted Benin artifacts to Nigeria

XO’s: US returns 23 looted Benin artifacts to Nigeria

The United States of America has returned 23 looted Benin artifacts to Nigeria.

The Benin Bronzes were handed over to a Nigerian delegation at a ceremony on Tuesday in Washington.

Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed, who received the artifacts, hailed the US and its institutions for the repatriation of the “highly-cherished” cultural artworks.

“These artifacts are intrinsic to the culture that produced them. A people ought not to be denied the works of their forebears. It is in the light of this that we are delighted with today’s repatriation,” he said.

**https://www.chronicle.ng/2022/10/us-returns-23-benin-artefacts-to-nigeria/**

XOpinions

I wouldn’t dare insinuate that I am an art aficionado that is for such friends as famed curator Oludamola Adebowale aka Asiri but back to the matter, there has been a sudden change in the demeanor of the Caucasian colonial masters with a little lean towards restitution and repatriation especially of arts and artifacts among thousands of artworks known as the Benin Bronzes stolen from the Benin Kingdom in present-day Nigeria by British colonialists in 1897.

After we were robbed, at gunpoint I must add, the items were distributed to various museums and institutions across Europe and the US. Most were auctioned off and some were donated by rich oligarchs who had purchased the stolen items. More on the British later though, it’s the US and other European countries that are currently leading the line.

The Germans have in place with Nigeria, a political agreement for the transfer of 1,100 artifacts held by various museums to Nigeria. The physical return of the individual items would then be negotiated between the museums and the Nigerian government; some of the items may still be on exhibit in Germany under custodial agreements. (we’d be foolish to think that they’d just turn their backs on these beautiful artifacts our forebears left us).

Back to England, remember they are home to the biggest collection of Benin bronzes in the world with 900 pieces, (They did the actual robbery so that’s easy to understand) They have as of now, refused to part with any of them, claiming that the British Museum Act of 1963 and the Heritage Act of 1983 prohibit it from ever taking anything back. Like we say in Naija, I laugh in pidgin as we await more such artifacts from The Netherlands and Germany.