Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has commended the United States for the repatriation to Nigeria of 23 Benin bronzes, part of the thousands of artefacts that were looted by the British during their invasion of Benin Kingdom in 1897.
The minister gave the commendation at the Benin Bronzes’ repatriation ceremony in Washington, DC, yesterday.
”Please permit me, on behalf of the government and people of Nigeria, to most sincerely thank the United States and her major cultural heritage institutions for the return of these highly-cherished Benin Bronzes to Nigeria – which is the reason we are here today,” he said.
”These artefacts are intrinsic to the culture that produced them. A people ought not to be denied the works of their forebears. It is in the light of this that we are delighted with today’s repatriation of the Benin Bronzes,” Mohammed said.
He thanked the Boards of Trustees of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design for engaging in the discussions with Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments that led to the repatriation of the artefacts.
The minister disclosed that Nigeria will soon launch an international traveling exhibition with the artefacts being repatriated ”in a manner that will win more friends and promote greater goodwill for Nigeria and the ethnic groups that produced the artefacts”.
He said the release of the Benin Bronzes found in the US was a testament to the success of the Campaign For The Return and Restitution of Nigeria’s Looted/Smuggled Artifacts from around the world, which was launched in November 2019.
”We have also received or are in the process of receiving repatriated artefacts from The Netherlands, the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Mexico, the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and Germany, among others,” Alhaji Mohammed said.
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