Time.news – Germany plans to return to Nigeria the “Benin bronzes”, sculptures stolen during the colonial era in the Kingdom of Benin, now southern Nigeria. The decision was made during a meeting between museum experts and national and regional politicians organized on the initiative of the Secretary of State for Culture, Monika Grutters.
“We want to contribute to understanding and reconciliation with the descendants of those whose cultural treasures were stolen during the colonization,” he explained Grutters in a note. “We expect the first returns in the course of 2022“, he added.
Museums must publish a detailed list of all the bronzes in their possession by June 15th. A new meeting at the end of June will determine the delivery schedule. This decision constitutes “a turning point in the relationship we have with our colonial history,” the German Foreign Minister said in a statement. Heiko Maas.
The Benin bronzes are among the best known works of African art. These are brass plaques with figures carved in high relief, made between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. They depict people, symbols and court scenes and decorated the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin.
They were stolen by British soldiers at the end of the 19th century and then distributed in several European museums. The Ethnological Museum of Berlin holds 530 historical objects from the Kingdom of Benin, including 440 bronzes, part of which is expected to be exhibited in 2021 in an exhibition at the Humboldt Forum, in the German capital. The decision to return these objects came after the favorable opinion of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (Spk) which manages the Berlin museums. “The issue of restitution of cultural property is part of the honest treatment of colonial history. It is a question of justice,” added Maas.
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