The returned artefacts
Nigeria has received 18 Benin Kingdom artefacts from three Swiss museums, marking another milestone in the country’s campaign to recover its stolen cultural heritage.
The objects, widely known as the ‘Benin bronzes’, were among the treasures taken during the British invasion of the Benin Kingdom in 1897.
Switzerland also handed over five additional Nigerian artefacts that had been seized during criminal investigations in the country.
The National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) officially accepted the artefacts on behalf of the Federal Government at a ceremony held at the National Museum in Lagos.
During the event, Swiss Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider and the Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musa Musawa, signed an agreement on the transfer of cultural property.
The agreement is aimed at strengthening efforts to stop the illegal trade in cultural objects and improve cooperation on heritage protection between both countries.
Fourteen of the returned items came from the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich, while Museum Rietberg Zurich and the Musée d’Ethnographie de Genève each returned two artefacts.
The return followed years of provenance research under the Benin Initiative Switzerland, which confirmed the objects were believed to have been looted during the 1897 invasion.
A bronze bracelet and four archaeological monoliths from Nigeria’s Niger Delta, recovered in Switzerland, were also returned to the Nigerian government.
While some of the artefacts will remain on display at the National Museum in Lagos, most will be taken back to their ancestral home in Edo State.
