The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Tuesday, commended the United States for the repatriation of 23 looted artifacts including Benin Bronzes to Nigeria.
The repatriation ceremony was held in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, 11 October, 2022.
The event was attended by the Director-General of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monument, Prof. Abba Tijani and representative of the Oba of Benin, Prince Aghatise Erediauwa.
Others were the Director of the US National Museum for African Art (NMAfA), Ngaire Blankenberg, and Director, US National Gallery of Art, Kaywin Feldman.
Lai Mohammed in his statement said: “Please permit me, on behalf of the government and people of Nigeria, to most sincerely thank the United States and her major cultural heritage institutions for the return of these highly-cherished Benin Bronzes to Nigeria – which is the reason we are here today.
“These artefacts are intrinsic to the culture that produced them. The people ought not be denied the works of their forebears. It is in the light of this that we are delighted with today’s repatriation of the Benin Bronzes.”
He thanked the Boards of Trustees of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design for engaging in the discussions with Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments on the repatriation of the artefacts.
The minister said Nigeria would soon launch an international traveling exhibition with the artefacts being repatriated “in a manner that would win more friends and promote greater goodwill for Nigeria and the ethnic groups that produced the artefacts.
“We have also received or are in the process of receiving repatriated artefacts from The Netherlands, the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Mexico, the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and Germany, among others.”
The Federal Government launched a campaign for the return and restitution of Nigeria’s looted/smuggled artifacts from around the world in November 2019.
In August, 2022, ABC News reported that a British museum will return 72 artifacts to the Nigerian government that were forcibly taken over a hundred years ago.
The Horniman Museum and Gardens agreed to hand over the artifacts, including several sculptures known as Benin bronzes, after receiving a request for the artifacts from the Nigerian government.
The pieces were looted from Benin City in southern Nigeria during a British military invasion in 1897, according to a statement from the museum’s board of trustees.
“The evidence is very clear that these objects were acquired through force, and external consultation supported our view that it is both moral and appropriate to return their ownership to Nigeria,” the board’s chair Eve Salomon said in a statement.
The request to reclaim the stolen artifacts came in January, issued by the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, a Nigerian agency that oversees the preservation of the country’s historic and cultural properties.
Abba Tijani, NCMM’s director, said in a statement that the agency “very much welcomes” the Horniman’s decision and looks forward to future collaborations and loan agreements between the two organizations.
Nigeria and Germany have also agreed on the repatriation of the looted artifacts.
