German city of Cologne has announced that it has decided to return its Benin Bronzes from the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum to Nigeria.
The city council is to prepare the return of the objects in consultation with the German Foreign Office and Culture Ministry.
Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum’s collection includes 96 court artworks of Nigerian origin. They were looted from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, by the British Army in 1897. Benin kingdom is in what is now South-South Nigeria with Oba Ewuare as monarch.
The works were subsequently auctioned off in Europe.
It is Germany’s fourth-largest collection of Benin court art.
The Foreign Office in Berlin is currently drawing up a political framework agreement between Nigeria and Germany.
Transfer of ownership rights does not rule out the possibility of some of the bronzes being shown in German museums. That is a possibility Director of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Nanette Snoep, told DPA.
“But the decision on this then lies with Nigeria,’’ Snoep said. Adding that this reverses “the power relations established by colonialism.’’