Europe’s largest museums will loan looted Benin bronzes to Nigeria’s planned Royal Museum

ARTNET NEWS
By Kate Brown

Cast brass plaques from Benin City at British Museum. Photo: Andreas Praefcke [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons.

Major museums across Europe have agreed to loan important artifacts back to Nigeria for a new museum the country plans to open in 2021. The African nation’s Royal Museum will house a rotating display of artifacts, including the Benin bronzes that were looted during the Benin Expedition of 1897. The agreement marks a significant step after years of negotiations among European institutions and Nigerian authorities. The announcement came out of a meeting of the Benin Dialogue Group—which includes Nigerian representatives and European museum officials—in the Netherlands at the beginning of the month. The objects in question were looted by the British army during a so-called “punitive expedition” in 1897. [More]