The Benin bronzes are at the center of the debate about colonial loot in German museums. Nigeria and Germany have now agreed on the valuable art objects and the first returns. But it shouldn’t stay that way.
After the agreement between Germany and Nigeria on how to deal with the Benin bronzes, which are considered colonial loot, the African country expects further returns from the holdings of foreign museums and universities.
“The German decision has strongly influenced the position of other museums, universities and societies,” said the director general of Nigeria’s National Museums and Monuments Authority, Abba Tijani, in Stuttgart. There are some well-advanced talks in Great Britain and the USA about the art objects held there, which are considered colonial loot. He firmly assumes that there will be further returns and named the British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among others.
However, the German director of the British Museum, Hartwig Fischer, blocked questions from the German Press Agency on the status of the talks about the Benin bronzes. Whether the house with what is probably the largest inventory of Benin bronzes will follow the example of German museums remains uncertain for the time being.
Numerous bronzes in German museums
Around 1,100 of the artistic objects and bronzes from the palace of the then Kingdom of Benin, which today belongs to Nigeria, can be found in around 20 German museums, including 78 in the Linden Museum in Stuttgart alone. The Museum am Rothenbaum (Hamburg), the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum (Cologne), the Ethnological Museum Dresden/Leipzig and the Ethnological Museum Berlin also have the most extensive collections. So far, these five houses are involved in the planned transfer of ownership.
Most of the objects come from the British looting of 1897. A memorandum of understanding between the two countries is expected to be signed on Friday, paving the way for the transfer of ownership of the valuable art objects. Two bronzes are to be handed over immediately afterwards. According to dpa information, the pieces come from Berlin stocks.
The other houses involved have already taken steps to return the art objects, as spokesmen in Dresden, Hamburg and Cologne said on Wednesday. The Stuttgart Linden Museum will identify specific objects for return and enter into talks with the Nigerian side, announced the Baden-Württemberg Science Minister Theresia Bauer (Greens), adding: “I am very confident that we will now quickly make comprehensive returns come, especially from the Linden Museum.”
Some art treasures should stay in Germany
Only later will it be decided which of the art treasures should be exhibited as permanent loans in German museums. Loans involve a percentage that has yet to be determined and that can be distributed among several museums, said Tijani. “We don’t want to create a vacuum here. That’s why we will also leave some objects behind so that they can be exhibited and researched on them.” It is also important to work together beyond the returns in order to advance research and design exhibitions.
The Baden-Württemberg State Secretary for Science Petra Olschowski (Greens) also emphasized that Nigeria alone determines how many and which objects are left behind.
Tijani praised the German handling of the topic. “Nigeria was not colonized by Germany. And yet Germany is the first country to opt for this restitution,” he said. He assured that his country was “well prepared” for the return.
Olschowski: “Part of a process that is just beginning”
State Secretary Olschowski sees the German return only as the first step in a long process. “It doesn’t end with the agreement,” she said. The holdings of the state-owned Baden-Württemberg museums, universities and university clinics would also be processed. Thousands of human remains such as hair, bones, skulls or skeletons from colonial times are still stored there. The aim of the country is to return the remains that were acquired or looted in a colonial context to the countries or groups of origin. “All of these activities are part of a major process that is just beginning,” said the Green politician. “And that’s still a long way to go.”
The director of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne, Nanette Snoep, also hopes that the agreement was only a boost. “I very much hope that this first step will result in far-reaching changes in the museums, which will be accompanied and supported by politicians,” she said, warning: “We should never forget how deeply such museums are interwoven with colonial history and that the colonial traumas caused by this still have an effect on the following generations,” said Snoep. (dpa)