A Benin Bronze that was among hundreds taken by British forces in 1897 will be handed over to a Nigerian delegation by a Scottish university on Thursday, the third European institution in two days to restore cultural items to their African homelands.
The sculpture depicts the head of an Oba, or king, from the once-powerful Kingdom of Benin, which is now part of Nigeria. The bronzes stolen from its royal court are among Africa’s most important cultural artifacts, with most of them now in Europe.
In 1957, the bronze skull was purchased at an auction by the University of Aberdeen. The university approached the Nigerian authorities to offer to hand it up after a recent investigation of its provenance proved it was one of the looted objects.
“The Benin Bronzes have become essential symbols of injustice over the last 40 years,” said Professor George Boyne, the university’s Principal, and Vice-Chancellor, in a statement released ahead of the handover event.
“Retaining an artifact of such significant cultural significance that was acquired in such despicable circumstances would not have been right.”
The bronzes are “imbued with the soul of the people from whom they were taken,” according to the current Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, who hopes that the Scottish university’s “noble act” will inspire other schools to follow like.
On Wednesday, another Benin Bronze was returned to Nigeria by a Cambridge University college, while the Quai Branly museum in Paris handed over 26 antiquities stolen in 1892 to the Republic of Benin, a former French territory bordering Nigeria.
The handovers are the clearest indication yet that momentum is building toward the repatriation of items taken from Africa by Europeans during the colonial period. Next year, Germany will begin returning Benin Bronzes kept in its museums.
The returns are likely to put more strain on the British Museum in London, which houses the world’s largest and most important collection of Benin bronzes.
