Nigeria and Germany, Friday, in Berlin, signed a joint declaration that would pave the way for the return of 1,130 Benin bronzes to Nigeria, 125 years after they were taken away from the ancient Benin Kingdom during the Benin Expedition of 1897.
A statement issued by Mr Segun Adeyemi who is the Special Assistant (Media) to the Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, said the event was witnessed by top Nigerian and German government officials, including the Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, Yusuf Tuggar and the Director-General of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Prof. Abba Tijani.
While the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Zubairu Dada, signed for Nigeria, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Ms Annalena Baerbock, and that country’s Minister of State for Culture and the Media, Ms Claudia Roth, signed for Germany.
Mohammed thanked the government and people of Germany for what he described as the ”single largest repatriation of artefacts anywhere in the world.”
”We also want to most sincerely thank the authorities of the various German regions, cities, museums and institutions that have been
working in concert to ensure the manifestation of the history-making event that we are witnessing today. By this singular action, Germany has taken the lead in correcting the wrongs of the past,” he said.
Thousands of Benin bronzes, metal plaques and sculptures that once decorated the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin are now scattered around European museums after being looted by the British at the end of the 19th century.
Germany has around 1,100 of the 16th to 18th century artefacts, split between some 20 museums.
The biggest collection is held by the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, which has 440 — considered the most important collection outside London’s British Museum.
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