The Netherlands agrees to return more than 100 artifacts to Nigeria looted during colonial times
The development comes as governments and museums in Europe and North America have increasingly sought to resolve ownership disputes over objects looted during colonial times.
Olugible Holloway, the commission's director, traveled to The Netherlands to sign the transfer agreement during a ceremony at the Museum Volkenkunde marking what he said was the largest single return of antiques looted from Benin.
'We thank the Netherlands for their cooperation and hope this will set a good example for other nations of the world in terms of repatriation of lost or looted antiquities,' Holloway said in a statement.
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Nigeria formally requested the return of hundreds of objects from museums around the world in 2022. Some 72 objects were returned from a London museum that year while 31 were returned from a museum in Rhode Island.
The Benin Bronzes were stolen in 1897 when British forces sacked the Benin kingdom, which is now in modern-day Nigeria.
The decision to return the items in the Dutch collection followed an assessment of a committee tasked with looking into requests by countries for restitution of artifacts in state museums. It marked the fifth time Dutch cultural institutions have returned objects based on the committee's recommendation.
'Cultural heritage is essential for telling and living the history of a country and a community,' Eppo Bruins, the Dutch culture and education minister, said in a statement. 'The Benin Bronzes are indispensable to Nigeria. It is good that they are going back.'
The committee is currently considering requests from Sri Lanka, India, and Indonesia for the return of objects. In 2023, two Dutch museums returned hundreds of cultural artifacts back to Indonesia and Sri Lanka taken, often by force, during the colonial era.
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But I've always appreciated those parts of religion that force us to reckon with the bigger questions of what life is actually about. My mother is an incredible woman. She is the only one who keeps getting arrested in our family. The other day she was arrested again as a 68-year-old climate activist. For her, it's always been very natural and logical to live in line with your own ideals. A lot of people think certain things, but they don't act on it. Many of my friends on the left care so much about poverty and inequality, and then I'll ask, 'How much do you donate to effective charities?' and very often, the answer is nothing. What I've learned from my mother is that you can just do what you say. She's also never been afraid to use the power of shame. A lot of people say that shaming is toxic, and I tend to disagree. I think there's a reason why we humans are pretty much the only species in the whole animal kingdom with the ability to blush. They thought it was hilarious. 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