The Netherlands has agreed to return 119 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria per the country’s request, marking the single largest return to date of Benin antiquities looted by the British military as part of its 1897 punitive expedition, as announced Wednesday, February 19. Stolen from the Kingdom of Benin (now part of modern-day Nigeria) by British soldiers and eventually acquired by the Dutch State Collection, 113 of the objects to be returned are held at the Wereldmuseum Leiden and the remaining six at the municipality of Rotterdam.
Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) put forth the repatriation request in September 2022, about a year after receiving a 2021 provenance research report from the Wereldmuseum on collections related to the Kingdom of Benin, and two years after the Colonial Collections Committee of the Netherlands published its 2020 advisory report recommending that the Netherlands “consider requests for the return of cultural objects in the possession of the Dutch State from source countries colonised by other [European] powers.”
The Committee assessed Nigeria’s request as well as the Wereldmuseum’s provenance research and determined last October that the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture, and Science Eppo Bruins should move forward with the unconditional restitution of the objects.
Bruins co-signed the repatriation agreement with NCMM Director General Olugible Holloway in Leiden on February 19.
Consisting of plaques, personal ornaments, and figures, the collection of objects will be returned to the Nigerian government, which will then decide how and where they will be displayed. The six objects from the municipality of Rotterdam, also associated with the British expedition of 1897, include a bell, three relief plaques, a coconut casing, and a staff.
“This restitution contributes to redressing a historical injustice that is still being felt today,” Bruins said in a press statement about the agreement signing in Leiden. “Cultural heritage is essential for telling and living the history of a country and a community. The Benin Bronzes are indispensable to Nigeria. It is good that they are going back.”
“We thank the Netherlands for their cooperation and hope this will set a good example for other nations of the world in terms of repatriation of lost or looted antiquities,” said Holloway.
