ANALYSIS: What restitution of the Nigerian looted artifacts?

The Benin Bronzes originate from what is now southwestern Nigeria. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) 

The Dutch State Collection is returning dozens of artifacts to Nigeria looted during colonial times, the Netherlands’ government announced February 2025. The 119 artifacts, known as the Benin Bronzes, will be returned at the request of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments. Following the lead of museums in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States returning artifacts in 2022, the Dutch decision marks a continuation of a broader repatriation movement. 

The Benin Bronzes were stolen in 1897 when British forces invaded the Benin kingdom, which is now in modern-day southwestern Nigeria. In total, around 5,000 artifacts, mostly created in the 13th to 16th centuries, were looted by the British colonial troops in Benin City, the kingdom’s capital. The artifacts include bronze regalia, plaques and sculptures of people and animals, as well as ceremonial swords, ritualistic statues, and musical instruments.

Sold to private collectors and museums in Western countries, the Benin Bronzes first belonged to the Edo people. The looting had a profound impact on the community, effectively severing their connection with their cultural heritage.

The looting of Nigerian art, particularly the Benin Bronzes, is not merely a story of stolen objects: it is a story of cultural erasure, imperial domination, and ongoing injustice. 

While restitution efforts have gained momentum—with institutions in the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands returning items—collectors such as the British Museum justify their possession by citing the universality of art. Yet these artifacts are sacred memory, identity, and history, violently removed. The calls for return speak to a deeper form of restorative justice. 

During the 19th century, the colonization of African nations was marked by widespread looting. However, the word “looting” itself was not coined until the 20th century. Its use only became widespread during World War II, Caroline M. Riley, Adjunct Lecturer at Georgetown University explained to me in an interview.

“In 1897, the British destroyed Benin City, and that was considered one of the most important and most advanced cities in the world. And within a few months, it was completely decimated,” Riley said. 

The question of restitution and reparation for these acts did not emerge immediately. For much of the 20th century, cultural restitution was unthinkable. According to National Geographic, the argument frequently employed by museums and collector institutions was that not all items of foreign origin were stolen or acquired violently but rather given or traded. 

Some curators argue that artifacts like the Benin Bronzes are part of art universality, speaking to a shared and global heritage. Others feel that the job of protecting and displaying these artworks belong to those best equipped to handle this responsibility.

These looted artifacts have lasting consequences for the countries they were taken from, as they form an essential part of a people's cultural identity.

“To lose your culture on such a wide scale is one of the best ways for a nation to defeat a people, to defeat a community,” Riley explained. “Because there's really not much more to live for than the cultural community that you have created.”

Multiple generations have been impacted by the deprivation of their cultural artworks. “It does something quite psychological. As well as being a catastrophic loss. So there’s both the scale and then the intimacy of that pain,” Riley shared. 

In the case of Nigeria, the looting of the Benin Bronzes has come to symbolize the evils of colonialism, according to National Geographic. 

Physical access to cultural artworks is critical to historians, artisans, and other citizens, Keith Merrin, director of the Great North Museum, explained to National Geographic: “Repatriation can be a powerful cultural, spiritual and symbolic act, which recognises the wrongs of the past and restores some sense of justice.” 

The return of these artworks is becoming increasingly common as critics call for greater efforts to accurately present the historical contexts of the looted artifacts.

In the case of Nigeria, the Metropolitan Museum and the Smithsonian are among those that have returned artifacts in the past several years, per NPR. 

In his book, What Britain Did to Nigeria, Historian Max Siollun examines the legacy of Nigeria’s violent colonization. He believes historical narratives shaped by Europeans neglect “a much more interesting and deeper history,” reports AP News. 

To negotiate the return of their artworks, an independent Nigerian entity, the Legacy Restoration Trust, formed in 2020. In addition, the Benin Dialogue Group—a working group of representatives from Nigerian and European cultural institutions, including the British Museum—has been engaged in discussions about the return of artifacts to Benin City.

The platform Digital Benin, launched in November 2022, marked the beginning of a shift in the ownership of artifacts looted in the 19th century.

Hosted by the Museum am Rothenbaum in Hamburg, Digital Benin is an online catalogue of more than 5,000 Benin Bronzes. The aim is to use technology to reestablish a community’s connection to artifacts that were taken from their native lands. This platform makes access to these artworks possible, even from an overseas distance.

“The evidence is very clear that these objects were acquired through force, and external consultation supported our view that it’s both moral and appropriate to return their ownership to Nigeria,” Eve Salomon, chair of the Trustees of the Horniman Museum, said. 

Experts view these returns as critical, even if they may appear trivial to some. “Cultural heritage is essential for telling and living the history of a country and a community. The Benin Bronzes are indispensable to Nigeria. It is good that they are going back,” Eppo Bruins, the Dutch culture and education minister, said in a statement.

However, some museums still contend that looted artifacts should remain within their walls. Riley explained that the British Museum makes the argument that they have a very important world audience that comes to their museum, that they are not a representative of the government, and that they have the unique ability to share the culture with a broader audience.

“Typically they make the argument that no object is only based in one culture, because objects are multicultural,” Riley said. “Museums are very much seeing themselves as these important defenders of art and recognizing the power of ownership and the power of destruction of art.” 

This question of reparation and return is still debated within the British Museum. “They also have a training program for curators to come and get the necessary training. So it can maybe feel a bit paternalistic, but I think the intention is genuinely trying to help create an environment where the artworks can be protected and well cared for,” Riley said. 

Some organizations remain opposed to the return of the artworks, according to Aljazeera. The Restitution Study Group, a group focused on slavery justice, believes that present-day southwestern Nigerians should not benefit from the bronzes since, as a society, they are descended from slave traders.

Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, director of The Restitution Group, argued in an open letter that the Kingdom of Benin created the artworks “with manilla currency they were paid to raid villages with illegal guns and other weapons, steal women, children and men, sell them into the transatlantic slave trade, and sometimes kill them in ritual sacrifices.”

The Benin Bronzes are still on display in a number of museums, famously at the British Museum. Critics will continue to advocate for the return of the remaining Nigerian artifacts. 

“This is their religious history and their cultural history, and they deserve it back,” Riley said.