By Tony O’Reilly-
Germany on Tuesday handed over 20 looted Benin Bronzes to Nigeria.
The Berlin-based Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which manages the German capital’s many museums, in June, entered into negotiations on the returns of artefacts to Namibia, Tanzania and Cameroon.
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Twenty-one Benin bronzes held by German museums were returned to Nigeria in an official handover ceremony in the administrative capital of Abuja. The move follows last year’s announcement by Germany’s culture minister that the country intended to repatriate the sculptures.
Germany handed over 20 Benin Bronzes from its museums to Nigeria, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Tuesday, making it the latest European country to return cultural artifacts to their African homeland.
The handovers are the clearest sign yet of growing momentum towards the return of artifacts taken away from Africa by Europeans during the colonial period.
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.The hand over was consistent with a declaration Germany signed with Nigeria to release all 1,130 Benin Bronzes – actually copper alloy relief sculptures, many showing court figures – in German public museums.
Mohammed said the event would remain indelible in the history of mankind when Germany trail the blaze in doing right to return the looted artefacts.#“Twenty years ago, even ten years ago, nobody could have anticipated these bronzes returning to Nigeria, because the obstacles to achieving repatriation were seemingly insurmountable.
But today, with the pioneering gesture of a friendly nation, Germany, the story has changed.
“The negotiations were not as easy as things look today. They were stormy at times. But the sincerity of the Germans played a big role in resolving knotty issues.
“Because of what Germany has done, negotiations with other nations, institutions and museums for repatriation of the Benin Bronzes in their possession became swifter.’’ he said
Nigerian foreign minister Geoffrey Onyeama and information minister Lai Mohammed were present at the handover including
Among the artefacts to be returned is a shell-studded statue of the mother goddess Ngonnso’, which holds great spiritual significance for the Nso’ people of northwest Cameroon, the foundation said.
The statue has been part of the collection of Berlin’s Ethnological Museum since 1903, after it was “donated” by a German colonial officer who had taken it by force from the Nso’.
“Today we are taking a step that was long overdue: We are returning 20 Benin bronzes from German museums to where they belong, to their homeland,” Baerbock told reporters in Abuja.
Some of the Benin Bronze artifacts had been in German custody for nearly two centuries,with some in private collections and casinos, Nigerian officials said.
British soldiers seized thousands of metal castings and sculptures during a raid on the then-separate Kingdom of Benin in 1897.
The Bronzes were auctioned off and then spread among institutions from New Zealand to Germany and the United States, with the biggest collection in London.
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