The University of Aberdeen has handed over a Benin Bronze to Nigeria after over 100 years since it was looted by British forces, IgbereTV reports.
The handover ceremony took place on Thursday in Scotland with Prince Aghatise Erediauwa, the younger brother of the current Benin monarch; Chief Charles Uwensuyi-Edosomwan, the Obasuyi of Benin; Professor Abba Isa Tijani, Director of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments; Babatunde Adebiyi, the Legal Adviser of National Commission for Museums and Monuments; and Abdul Mohammed Gimba, Director, Museums, National Commission for Museums and Monuments present to receive the artefact.
They were also accompanied by Prince Isa Bayero, a Prince of the Kano Emirates; His Excellency, Suleiman Sani, Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria in UK; and Mrs Edith Ekunke, Retired Director of the National Museum, Lagos.
The sculpture, which depicts the head of an Oba (king), is one of thousands of religious and cultural artefacts looted by British forces in 1897 during the destruction of Benin City in present-day Nigeria by a British military expedition.
It was later purchased by the University of Aberdeen at an auction in 1957.
But a recent review of collections included research into its provenance confirming that it was one of the so-called ‘bronzes’, acquired in immoral circumstances during the Benin Punitive Expedition in which the royal palace of the Oba was burned and looted.
As a result, in 2020 the University instigated a conversation through Professor Bankole Sodipo, Professor of Law in Babcock University, Nigeria, with the National Commission for Museums and Monuments of Nigeria, the Edo State Government and the Royal Court of the Oba, regarding its return
