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Dutch government returns historical artworks looted from Nigeria

With countries increasingly reflecting on their colonial history, museums face a serious question: is it moral to keep historical artefacts that were taken in bad faith?

More than 130 years after they were stolen by British troops, 119 Benin Bronzes have been repatriated by the Dutch government to their country of origin: Nigeria.

Around the world, those campaigning for museums to return artifacts stolen during war and colonial conquests have celebrated their recent arrival, hoping it will cause a surge in similar agreements in the near future.

The handover ceremony took place on June 21st at the National Museum in Lagos, in the presence of representatives from both the Netherlands and Nigera.

The Netherlands had agreed to the transfer for the Bronzes in February upon request from the Nigerian government, which has been relentlessly campaigning for years to reclaim them.

This shipment is the largest physical return of Benin artefacts to Nigeria to date.

What is the significance of the Benin Bronzes?

The Benin Bronzes are a collection of artefacts made up of several thousand plaques and sculptures made between the 15th and 19th centuries.

These include anything from decorative statues to jewellery and ornate masks once displayed in the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, now known as the Southern Nigerian Edo state.

During a brutal conquest in the year 1897, these objects were looted by British colonial troops who killed thousands of people in the process. As a result of the violent raid, the Kingdom of Benin was absorbed into colonial Nigeria.

In the years that followed, the stolen Bronzes were sold to over 130 museums in 20 countries. Most ended up in museums in the United Kingdom and Germany.

The newly returned Bronzes were part of the Dutch State Collection exhibited at the Wereldmuseum in Leiden, where four items will remain on loan.

In July 2022, Nigeria signed a repatriation agreement with Germany for the return of 1,130 Benin Bronzes. Before the end of the year, 22 of them arrived in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.

A repatriation request was also sent to the British Museum back in October 2021. The museum currently retains over 900 artefacts from the Kingdom of Benin, many of which are not on display but instead sit in storage.

Museums in Britain, along with many others in former colonial empires, continue to face mounting pressure to return artefacts that do not originate in the country.

Which countries have requested the return of historical artefacts?

Around the world, archivists, museums, and governments have been debating whether looted items should be returned to their country of origin.

At the core of this debate is a serious question: is it fair or moral to keep historical artefacts that were taken in bad faith? Many believe that countries harbouring resentment towards the UK and other Western nations for failing to return their artefacts are fully justified.

‘It’s a disgrace that the Netherlands is only now turning its attention to the return of the colonial heritage,’ Taco Dibbits, director of the Rijksmuseum’s, said to the Dutch newspaper Trouw in 2019. ‘We should have done it earlier and there is no excuse,’ he continued.

When he said this, Dibbits was speaking not of the Benin Bronzes, but the restitution of colonial-era loot to Indonesia and Sri Lanka – highlighting just how many countries had their artefacts stolen during colonial rule.

As far back as 2009, Egypt joined the growing number of former European colonies demanding for the return of their historical artefacts when it demanded that the Louvre return five fragments of a wall painting from the tomb of Tetaki, an 18th-dynasty noble.

By 2012, Nigeria had requested the return of 32 bronze and ivory objects from Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. These artefacts were parts of the iconic Benin Bronze collection.

In 2020, India’s foreign minister announced his own wish to see the repatriation of treasures taken to Britain during colonial rule.

‘I have a natural desire to see as many things which rightfully belong to India back in India,’ he announced during a press conference in Delhi. He also praised a increased shift from what he called ‘utter denial’ about how such coveted items had been acquired.

In 2022, the the Democratic Republic of Congo celebrated the return of an inventory of 84,000 Congolese heritage objects and natural specimens from Belgium.

Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s former prime minister declared the repatriation as a ‘reappropriation of our national memory.’

Why is the return of artefacts such a hot topic?

Those advocating for returning stolen artefacts often begin with the moral argument.

Many people believe that historical items taken from on the land of other countries continue to be the property of those countries – regardless of who discovered them or who controlled that country at the time.

Others feel that artefacts lack significance to the countries and museums in which they are displayed, or rather, that they become more valuable when placed in the context of their country of origin.

In this case, returning the artefacts ensures they can be displayed for local people to experience aspects of their culture that they have been denied, presenting an opportunity to learn from the past and connect with their history and culture.

Finally, there are practical and financial reasons to return artworks to their countries of original. With museums storing millions of items in their collections, a limited number of items can be placed on display at any given time. It’s worth arguing that these would be better off being displayed and enjoyed in the country they came from.

As people everywhere become more informed about the way these beautiful, unique, and historically important artefacts were obtained – more often than not, stolen – it’s likely we will see the debate around the return of such items transformed into an understanding that ‘finders’ does not always mean ‘keepers.’

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