Germany to return 7,000 looted Benin artefacts to Nigeria October

No fewer than 7,000 artefacts plundered from Benin Kingdom are expected to be repatriated by Germany to Nigeria not later than October, the country’s ministry of foreign affairs has said.

According to NAN, Gabriel Aduda, permanent secretary at the ministry of foreign affairs in Nigeria, broke the news at the cultural centre, Nigeria House in New York.

Aduda was speaking at the inaugural Nigerian Cultural Show exhibiting Nigeria’s diverse cultural heritage, sites, and traditional festivals.

He said the reparation of the artefacts would go with building an ultramodern museum in Edo and the training of some curators that would man the artefacts.

The ambassador also disclosed that Nigeria had reached an advanced stage of discussions with Germany to return thousands of different pieces of Benin Bronzes back to the country.

“We are working with relevant MDAs, we have had several high-level meetings with the Republic of Germany and we are at the stage where thousands of artworks are to be returned to Nigeria,” Abuda added.

“There are over 7,000 different pieces of artefacts that the Republic of Germany wants to give back to Nigeria.

“We have talked deep into this that the reparation is not only at giving back, but they are coming to put a modern-day museum in Edo State and they are training 25 curators that will man the museum for sustainability.

“We have gone far and we are thinking that this will be concluded in October this year. We are hoping it will be a window to reach out to other European countries to return to us what was taken from us years back.”