Efforts by Governor Godwin Obaseki to get the looted ‘Benin Bronzes’ returned to the country after 124 years of being away may have received ‘psychological bashing’ on Friday, July 9, 2021, when His Royal Majesty, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, Ogidigan, asked the Federal Government to temporarily take custody of the 1,130 stolen Benin artefacts in Germany after they are repatriated from Europe amid the controversy surrounding where the artefacts will be housed.
The monarch, who said that the looted artefacts are the cultural heritage of the Benin kingdom created by the ancestors and forefathers within the traditional norms and rites of the kingdom, noted that they are not the property of the state government or any private entity that is not a creation of the Benin kingdom.He said the right destination for the artefacts pronounced by his father was the Benin Royal Museum that would be sited within the palace.
“My response was that the setting up of another organisation or legal entity in whatever form or guise will not be necessary or acceptable. I informed him that Oba Ewuare II Foundation has been registered with the CAC and has worked out a framework for not only receiving the artifacts but also building a modern structure, which is the Benin Royal Museum,” he said.
The minister, who made the demand in Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday, during separate meetings with the German Minister of State for Culture, Prof. Monika Grutters and the German Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, was reacting to comments by Grutters that the European nation was ready to make ‘substantial return’ of the stolen artefacts.
Days after Germany’s announcement, the University of Aberdeen became one of the first institutions in Europe to commit to restituting a Benin bronze, saying that the head of an oba in its possession was “acquired in a way that we now consider to have been extremely immoral”.Around 45 British institutions hold looted artefacts from Benin.
The Minister had also proposed that the agreement for the repatriation of the Benin Bronzes from Germany must be signed by December 2021. The Edo State governor, while presenting the 2019 appropriation bill before a session of the House of Assembly, said his administration planned to construct a N500 million Benin Royal Museum to hold the artefacts when returned.
Looted Artifacts from all around the world have populated European museums and have generated money for them for decades. All looted artifacts should be returned to their lands of origin long with recompence!
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