Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information, says Nigeria has signed an agreement with Germany to repatriate over 1,130 looted Benin Bronze artefacts back to the country.
Mr. Mohammed revealed this on Tuesday after three museums in the U.S. repatriated 31 Benin Bronze artefacts to Nigeria.
Britain invaded and conquered the Benin Empire in 1987, looting away some of these special artefacts now spread to different nations.
“This is important for the British Museum to understand and for the British government to know because I was also in the British Museum to ask them to return thousands of the artefacts in its custody. The standard response is that until the British Parliament changes the status, they are not in position to do so.
“The U.S. and Germany are now seeing that this matter is not of law but of morality, is about doing the right thing. I hope that the British government will also learn from the two countries and do (the) same.’’
According to the minister, Nigeria intends to sign an agreement with the British government on November 28 to return about 86 other artefacts from various museums in the U.K.
He stated that in January, Nigeria and the U.S. signed the bilateral cultural property agreement to prevent illegal import into the U.S. of some categories of Nigerian artefacts.
