25-5-2025
The Dutch Museum has removed 113 Benin bronzes from display and is restoring them, ahead of shipping them back to Lagos in June.
The bronzes were looted from the ancient Kingdom of Benin, in modern-day Nigeria, more than 120 years ago by British colonisers.
The Netherlands agreed to return 119 Benin bronze statues to Nigeria in February.
“These don’t belong here. They were violently taken, so they need to go back,” museum director Marieke van Bommel told French news agency AFP. “This is a typical example of looted art.”
While the majority of these 19th-century African sculptures remain in France and the UK, van Bommel hopes the Dutch example will be noted around the world.
“I think we all agree that this collection doesn’t belong in European museums. We do hope that other countries will follow this example,” she said.
According to her, the collection is priceless: “It’s a cultural value, so we never put a price on it.”
It is currently showing an exhibition entitled Our Colonial Inheritance, which examines Dutch colonial history in Indonesia, Suriname, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, among other countries.
“Colonialism is not a thing of the past,” the exhibition text reads. “It has shaped the world: our physical, mental and personal world. Colonialism lives on to this day.”
Van Bommel said they had struck a deal with Nigeria to retain four of the bronzes on loan, so visitors can continue to learn from their story.
“We want to talk about the expedition, but also about the whole subject of restitution,” she explained.
Former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari declared in 2023 that the returned works would be given to the Oba, the traditional ruler of the kingdom, and not to the Nigerian state.
Plans are taking shape to build a museum in Benin City, Nigeria, where the bronzes will take pride of place.
The story of the theft of the Benin bronzes began in 1897, when nine British military officers were killed on a trade mission to the Kingdom of Benin, in the south of present-day Nigeria.
The UK deployed a military expedition to avenge the death of its officers, with British troops killing several thousand locals and torching Benin’s capital city. They also looted the royal palace, stealing hundreds of artworks – including the Benin bronzes.
Most were auctioned off or sold to finance the expedition, to museums across Europe and the US. RFI
Benin Bronze