92 bronze sculptures will be returned to Nigeria by Germany in an attempt to address its “dark colonial past.”
The sculptures were looted from the West African country when it was under colonial rule.
They were originally stolen by the British army in 1897 when it ransacked, and burned down, the palace of the kingdom of Benin which was located in modern-day Nigeria.
More than 5,000 ancient artifacts are estimated to have been stolen from Nigeria by England, when it was the country’s colonizer, said Nigerian authorities.
The Mayor of the German City of Cologne signed an agreement to return the sculptures called the Benin Bronzes.
The director general of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums, Abba Isa Tijani, was in Cologne to sign the agreement with mayor Henriette Reker.
“This is a milestone in a difficult debate lasting decades about the restitution of looted art, with national and international significance,” Reker said.
Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister returned the prized cultural artifacts to Nigerian officials in a ceremony in the capital Abuja.
“It was wrong to steal these bronzes. It was wrong to keep these bronzes and it is long overdue to return these bronzes to their home,” she said at the event.
Three of the pieces will be brought back to Nigeria this month, with 52 more to be gradually transferred from next year onwards.
