Met Museum returns 3 artworks looted under British Colonial Rule to Nigeria

*New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is pleased to have initiated the return of these works, and is committed to transparency and responsible collecting of cultural property ─Director Max Hollein

Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect

As museums around the world intensify efforts at repatriating some stolen foreign treasures to their rightful owners, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has officially returned three works of art to Nigeria.

ConsumerConnect gathered the museum returned the three artworks that were looted in the 19th Century to the West African country Monday, November 22, 2021.

The two 16th-century brass plaques and a 14th-century brass head from the Kingdom of Benin, part of modern-day Nigeria, located in current Edo State capital, were taken from the Royal Palace during British military occupation in 1897.

They were later illegally transported to the British Museum, in London, United Kingdom (UK), until 1950 when the UK repatriated them, agency report said.

However,  sequel to their return to the National Museum, in Lagos, the works re-entered the art market and ended up in the hands of a private investor, who donated them to the Met in New York, in 1991, where they were exhibited for years.

Thus, following the earlier announce,ent June 2021, the transfer of the artworks to the Nigerian National Collections Monday this week was confirmed at a signing in New York by Met Director Max Hollein and Abba Isa Tijani, Director-General of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments of Nigeria.

Tijani, in a press statement was quoted to have congratulated the Met “for the transparency it has shown” while Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s Honourable Minister for Information and Culture, urged “other museums to take a cue from this” decision.

The Minister noted: “The art world can be a better place if every possessor of cultural artifacts considers the rights and feelings of the dispossessed.”

Met Director Hollein further stated: “The Met is pleased to have initiated the return of these works, and is committed to transparency and the responsible collecting of cultural property.”

The museum also signed an agreement with the African country to formalise their “shared commitment to future exchanges of expertise and art,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Met said it would “lend works from Benin” to Nigerian museums and, in return, Abuja would provide “loans” to the Met with a view to the creation of a new museum wing by 2024.

The restitution of stolen works of art in Africa by colonial armies has affected institutions across the Western world, according to report.

Earlier November 2021, Paris, Capital of France, handed back 26 treasures that were also looted from Benin during colonial times.

The decision reportedly fulfilled a promise French President Emmanuel Macron earlier made to restore a lost part of Africa’s heritage.

Likewsie, German museums are said to have agreed to work with Nigerian authorities on a plan to repatriate plundered Benin treasures, whereas London’s Horniman Museum said in April that it would consider the repatriation of artifacts obtained by “colonial violence” to Nigeria.

Report indicates the British Museum, which has faced increasing criticism for its refusal to return artifacts to Nigeria and Egypt among other places, helped to return over 150 looted ancient treasures to institutions in Iraq and Afghanistan 2019.

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