Ninety-two Benin Bronzes from Cologne’s Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum have now been officially returned to Nigeria .
The mayor of the western German city, Henriette Reker, signed an agreement on the transfer of the ownership with the director general of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Abba Isa Tijani, Thursday, in Cologne .
“This is a milestone in a decades-long, difficult debate about the restitution of looted art, with national and international significance,” Reker said at the brief ceremony.
The British army looted the bronze sculptures in 1897 from the ruling palace of the kingdom of Benin, located in what is now Nigeria.
The works of art were auctioned all over Europe. Some 1,100 of them are in about 20 German museums.
This summer, Germany and Nigeria agreed on a process to transfer ownership of the looted objects, including repatriating some of them.
Three of the artworks from Cologne are to be brought back to Nigeria this month, and 52 of the bronzes are to be gradually repatriated from 2023.
Some 37 items will remain on loan to Cologne for an initial period of 10 years, the two sides agreed.
