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Nigeria Receives 18 Benin Bronzes Returned by Switzerland
The Benin Bronzes returned by Switzerland were looted during the 1897 invasion of Benin City and housed in Swiss museums for decades.
Switzerland has returned 18 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria in a ceremony held at the National Museum in Lagos, marking another major step in ongoing efforts to recover African artefacts taken during the colonial era.
The artefacts were among hundreds looted from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin after British forces invaded Benin City in 1897.
Nigeria’s Culture Minister Hannatu Musa Musawa described the returned pieces as symbols of Africa’s advanced civilisation before colonial rule.
The restitution represents “evidence of civilisation that already mastered bronze casting to a standard of technical, artistic and extremely intricate sophistication” before colonisation, she said.
The returned collection also included a bronze bracelet and four Ikom monoliths from the Niger Delta.
Switzerland’s Federal Department of Home Affairs said the items had been seized during criminal investigations and later transferred to the state.
The bronzes were previously housed at the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich, Museum Rietberg and the Musee d’Ethnographie de Geneve.
Swiss official Elisabeth Baume-Schneider acknowledged the historical injustice tied to the artefacts.
“The artefacts returned today carry a painful history,” she said.
“Many of them left the Kingdom of Benin… as a result of violence, looting and deeply unequal power relations.”
Several Western countries, including Germany, Britain and the Netherlands, have returned African artefacts in recent years, though many are still held overseas.
The repatriation process has also sparked disputes within Nigeria over who should take custody of the bronzes.
Alice Hertzog, director of the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich, said the artefacts did not belong in Switzerland.
“We have cared for them. We have preserved them, but they were never ours to keep,” she said.
Musawa called on other nations still holding African heritage objects to emulate Switzerland’s decision.
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