Silence no longer seen as option for UK on looted items

A London museum's decision to repatriate artifacts to Nigeria is a reminder that former colonizing countries can no longer hold onto stolen artifacts and remain silent, and it is moral as well as appropriate to return them, experts and academics said.

Horniman Museum and Gardens announced it will return to Nigeria dozens of artifacts looted by British forces from Benin City in 1897.

The 72 artifacts include 12 plaques made of brass and bronze that are known collectively as the Benin Bronzes. Other objects include a brass altar piece, ivory and brass ceremonial objects, brass bells, everyday items such as fans and baskets, and a key "to the king's palace", the museum said.

Felicia Appenteng, chair of IE University's IE Africa Center in Madrid, said museums can no longer hold stolen objects and stay silent. "The unique and distinct cultural output of Benin ranges from extraordinary architecture of the (Royal Palaces of Abomey) to the remarkable bronze sculptures at the center of this story," she said.

The move comes after the museum received a request from Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments.

"It is fantastic that this long-awaited repatriation is finally put into motion," Emiline Smith, lecturer in art crime and criminology at the University of Glasgow, said. "Keeping the Benin objects and other looted cultural objects in the UK would contribute to the intergenerational, lasting harms that colonial exploitation has caused."

Horniman has also consulted with community members, visitors, schoolchildren, academics, heritage professionals and artists based in Nigeria and the United Kingdom on the status of the artifacts.

The museum said it will now discuss with the Nigerian museum commission on the process for the formal transfer of ownership, as well as the possibility of retaining some objects on loan for display, research and education.

"While it is easy for us to ruminate on the audacity of looting a country and then dictating the terms of the return of those stolen objects, the heroes of this story are the historians and activists whose tireless efforts made this possible," Appenteng said. "Our art and our history tell us who we are, and the return of these objects is key to telling an honest and exciting story about African innovation and accomplishment. Progress is not possible without the truth."

Eve Salomon, chair of the trustees at Horniman Museum and Gardens, said the museum is pleased to be able to take this step, and it looks forward to working with Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments to secure longer term care for these precious artifacts.