The Netherlands returns 119 stolen sculptures to Nigeria

The Benin Bronzes were artefacts stolen during the UK’s imperial plunder of Benin, modern-day southern Nigeria.

The Netherlands has officially handed back 119 ancient sculptures stolen from the former Nigerian kingdom of Benin more than 120 years ago during the colonial era.

Olugbile Holloway, director-general of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments, said on Saturday that the artefacts were the “embodiments of the spirit and identity of the people from which they were taken from”.

“All we ask of the world is to treat us with fairness, dignity and respect,” he said at a ceremony held at the National Museum in Lagos.

Holloway added that Germany had also agreed to return more than 1,000 additional pieces.

The artefacts, known as the Benin Bronzes, are the latest return of precious history to Africa as pressure increases on Western governments to return items taken during imperialism.

Four of the artefacts are on display in the museum’s courtyard and will remain in the museum’s permanent collection, while the others will be returned to the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II – the traditional ruler of the Kingdom of Benin in southern Nigeria.

The Benin Bronzes include metal and ivory sculptures dating back to the 16th to 18th centuries.

The items were stolen in 1897 when British forces, under the command of Sir Henry Rawson, ransacked the Benin kingdom – modern-day southern Nigeria – and forced Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, the monarch at the time, into a six-month exile.

In 2022, Nigeria formally requested the return of hundreds of objects from museums worldwide. In the same year, about 72 objects were returned from a museum in London, and 31 were returned from Rhode Island in the United States.