TUE. 20 DEC, 2022-theGBJournal| The Federal Government of Nigeria has called on all other nations, institutions, museums and private collectors still holding on to Nigerian antiquities to release them.
Of particular interest to Nigeria now is the more than 900 Benin Bronzes held in British Museum.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed made the call on behalf of the Federal Government today, during the official handover of repatriated Benin Bronzes by Germany to Nigeria, in Abuja.
Germany signed the declaration with Nigeria to release all 1,130 Benin Bronzes in Germany public museums on July 7, 2022.
”We want to thank the Federal Government of Germany and its officials for these unprecedented moves that culminated in this event,” Lai Mohammed said while welcoming to the event the Foreign Minister of Germany, Frau Annalena Baerbock, Federal Government Minister for Culture and the Media of Germany, Frau Claudia Roth, members of parliament both of the federal and regional governments in Germany, administrators of German federal and regional bodies, as well as administrators and directors of museums in Germany.
Meanwhile, the Minister noted that a year has rolled by since Nigeria submitted an official letter to the British Museum demanding the return of Nigerian antiquities in this museum.
”Yet there has been no reply of any kind. I visited in July this year hoping that the success recorded with the Germans will nudge the British Museum to do what is right. But I met a brick wall,” the Minister said.
”The British Museum and all those holding on to our artefacts must understand that repatriation is a cause which time has come. They must also understand that many of these cultural objects are not mere art to us but the true essence of our being. They are not mere decorative works but our culture and heritage. They belong here, not anywhere else!”
The Minister said: ”I want to announce that Nigeria is not only seeking the return of Benin Bronzes but all Nigerian antiquities that were illegally or illicitly exported. It is upon returning these artefacts that true justice will be seen to have been done.”
Earlier, and through coordinated efforts of the Ministry of Information and Culture, the Netherlands, in October 2020 returned a 600-year-old Ife Terracotta while the University of Aberdeen, and Jesus College of the University of Cambridge, returned the Benin Bronzes in their holding.
The Metropolitan Museum in New York also returned Ife and Benin Bronzes, and the Horniman Museums and Gardens in London in October, 2022 signed the legal transfer of 72 Benin Bronzes.
The Smithsonian in Washington, the National Gallery of Art of the United States and the Rhodes Island School of Design have all released Benin Bronzes in their holdings.
”I seize the opportunity to commend the Pitt Rivers Museum of the University of Oxford, the Ashmolean Museum of the University of Oxford and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Cambridge, Glasgow City Council in Scotland, National Museums of Scotland and other institutions like them that are working assiduously towards repatriating the Benin Bronzes in their possession,” Lai Mohammed said.
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