The federal government has formally received 22 repatriated cultural artifacts from the German government.
The repatriated Benin Bronzes were handed over by a huge delegation from Germany led by the Federal Foreign Minister of Germany, Frau Annalena Baerbock along side her Cultural counterpart Claudia Roth.
Nigeria’s Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed applauded the German government for the share understanding and effort towards the return of the priceless possession.
He called on other nations and institutions still holding on to Nigerian antiquities to release them.
The information minister emphatically emphasised the British Museum holding more then Benin bronzes to take a cue from Germany and return them unconditionally.
In appreciating the German authorities, the Minister said moment comes in the history of mankind that people and societies are beckoned upon to do what is right. This moment beckoned and Germany seized it.
The Minister claims that no one could have predicted these bronzes returning to Nigeria twenty or even ten years ago because the barriers to repatriation seemed insurmountable. Today, however, thanks to Germany’s innovative act, the narrative has been altered.
“The talks were not as simple as things appear today,” he said. They occasionally became stormy.
The Minister also appreciated the Netherlands, which in October 2020 returned a 600-year-old Ife Terracotta; the University of Aberdeen, and Jesus College of the University of Cambridge, for returning the Benin Bronzes in their holding; the Metropolitan Museum in New York which returned Ife and Benin Bronzes; the Horniman Museums and Gardens in London which in October, 2022 signed the legal transfer of 72 Benin Bronzes.
