Feb. 4, 2022

The German city of Cologne on Friday announced that it had decided to return its Benin Bronzes from the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum to Nigeria.

The city council is to prepare the return of the objects in consultation with the German Foreign Office and Culture Ministry.

The Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum’s collection includes 96 court artworks that were looted from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin in what is now South-South Nigeria by the British Army in 1897.

The works were subsequently auctioned off in Europe.

It is Germany’s fourth-largest collection of Benin court art.

The Foreign Office in Berlin is currently drawing up a political framework agreement between Nigeria and Germany.

The transfer of ownership rights does not rule out the possibility of some of the bronzes being shown in German museums in the future, the director of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Nanette Snoep, told dpa.

“But the decision on this then lies with Nigeria,’’ Snoep said, adding that this reverses “the power relations established by colonialism.’’(NAN)