Berlin’s Humboldt Forum, a new museum, will not exhibit its renowned collection of Benin Bronzes and instead will begin the process of repatriating them. According to Humboldt Forum director Hartmut Dorgerloh, the museum will instead display replicas of the works or leave empty spaces.
Andreas Görgen, the head of the Foreign Ministry’s culture department, visited Benin City last week for discussions with Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki and other Nigerian officials. Under the terms of the agreement, which is not yet finalised, Germany would take part in archaeological excavations in the region, provide training for Nigerian museum employees, participate in the construction of a new museum in Benin, and restitute looted Benin sculptures and reliefs in German museum collections, Görgen says.
Historians, activists, and politicians have been seeking the return of the Benin Bronzes for decades, repeatedly urging the British Museum, the Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac in Paris, the Humboldt Forum, and others to send back the artifacts to Nigeria. Many have alleged that the objects were stolen by the British as part of a colonialist conquest. Berlin’s Ethnological Museum is believed to own 530 objects from the group.
The Humboldt Forum held its inauguration in December, although the museum still has yet to welcome its first public visitors due to the pandemic. More and more, museums across Europe are beginning to explore returning artifacts that have been subject to claims of looting and plundering. Since 2019, France has been undertaking the process of repatriating 27 objects to Benin and Senegal, and in 2021, the Netherlands said it would adopt a “radical” plan that would see numerous objects returned to various countries.