By Osa Mbonu-Amadi, Arts Editor
As everyone knows by now, the Netherlands has formally returned 119 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, marking the most important single repatriation of those historic artefacts since they had been looted over 120 years in the past throughout the British colonial invasion of the Benin Kingdom in 1897. The handover ceremony happened on June 21, 2025, on the Nationwide Museum in Lagos, attended by Nigerian and Dutch officers, together with Olugbile Holloway, director-general of Nigeria’s Nationwide Fee for Museums and Monuments, and Dutch Ambassador Dewi van de Weerd.
The Benin Bronzes, comprising metallic and ivory sculptures courting from the sixteenth to 18th centuries, embody the spirit and identification of the Benin folks. 4 artefacts stay on show on the museum’s courtyard in Lagos, whereas the remainder might be returned to Oba Ewuare II, the normal ruler of the Benin Kingdom. Oba Ewuare II described the return as a “divine intervention” and a testomony to sustained advocacy by the Benin Royal Courtroom and Nigerian authorities.
This restitution follows Nigeria’s formal 2022 request for the return of a whole lot of cultural objects held in museums worldwide. In that 12 months, 72 Benin Bronzes had been returned from a London museum and 31 from Rhode Island in america. Germany has additionally dedicated to returning greater than 1,000 Benin artefacts, furthering the worldwide motion to deal with colonial-era cultural plunder.
The Benin Bronzes had been initially seized throughout the punitive British expedition led by Sir Henry Rawson, which resulted within the exile of the then-king Ovonramwen Nogbaisi and the looting of the royal palace. The Dutch authorities’s resolution to return the artefacts was introduced in February 2025, recognising that this stuff had been wrongfully acquired and belong to Nigeria.
This historic return is seen as a big step towards restoring cultural dignity and fostering worldwide cooperation by means of cultural diplomacy between Nigeria and the Netherlands. It additionally units a precedent for different Western nations to observe in repatriating artefacts taken throughout imperialism.
The publish Implications of the Netherlands’ return of 119 Benin Bronzes appeared first on Vanguard News.
