Switzerland’s Museum Rietberg has transferred ownership of 11 looted artifacts to Nigeria, according to the city of Zurich, which oversees the museum. They are just a few of the estimated thousands of works of art taken when British forces raided Edo, the capital of the Kingdom of Benin (now Edo state in modern-day Nigeria), in 1897. Dispersed among collections in the West, these objects have been the focus of a long—and in recent years, highly publicized—effort to retrieve them on the part of the Nigerian government.
Though known as collectively as the Benin Bronzes, the artifacts, which date from the 16th to the 19th centuries, were fashioned in a variety of materials, including wood, ivory, brass, and bronze. All were looted from Edo’s royal palace, which was ransacked during the British raid.
The objects returned by the Rietberg include a commemorative bronze head from around 1850 depicting the ancestor of a chief, and an ivory tusk that tells the story of a king, or oba, of the 17th or 18th century. Both would have occupied ancestral shrines at the royal palace as ritual objects of great importance. These works will be sent back to Nigeria, while the other nine objects will remain on loan at the Museum Rietberg.
The transfer follows a claim submitted two years ago by Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) on behalf of the Nigerian government and the Kingdom of Benin. It comes after a recent announcement by Cambridge University’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology that it has returned 116 Benin bronzes to Nigeria.
Corine Mauch, mayor of Zurich city council, said: “The city of Zurich takes its responsibility seriously. We are convinced that a fair treatment of items of cultural heritage means admitting and actively rectifying past injustices.”
Around 150 original artworks have been physically returned to Nigeria in the last five years, but none are currently on display. A new Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) in Benin City, was originally expected to house the returned Benin Bronzes, but the plan was scrapped in 2023 when Nigeria’s federal government granted ownership of the bronzes to Ewuare II, the current ceremonial Oba of Benin and a descendent of the royals who once owned the artworks. He has since announced plans to build a royal museum for their display.
