Dutch Museum Removes 'Priceless' Benin Bronzes for Return to Nigeria

Dutch museum returns Benin Bronzes to Nigeria after 128 years

Clad in protective blue surgical gloves, a Dutch museum worker gingerly unhooks a precious decorative artifact before gently laying it down on a pillow and...

In the Wereldmuseum in Leiden, 113 centuries-old bronze objects have been removed from the display cases and carefully packed. The stolen objects are part of the Benin Bronzes and are returning to Nigeria after almost 130 years. The plaques, pendants and figures have been on display in the Leiden museum for 25 years. "They are beautiful, but not ours," director Marieke van Bommel told Omroep West. British soldiers stole the objects from the king…

Dutch museum removes Benin Bronzes for return to Nigeria

Clad in protective blue surgical gloves, a Dutch museum worker gingerly unhooks a precious decorative artefact before gently laying it down on a pillow and wrapping it in dozens of layers of special paper.

Dutch museum removes 'priceless' Benin Bronzes for return to Nigeria

Clad in protective blue surgical gloves, a Dutch museum worker gingerly unhooks a precious decorative artefact before gently laying it down on a pillow and wrapping it in dozens of layers of special paper.

An employee of a museum in the Netherlands carefully disassembles a bronze sculpture looted in Nigeria more than 120 years ago. They wrap the object in paper before sending it to his country of origin."This is one of the 113 pieces that the Wereldmuseum in Leiden will return as part of a process of restitution of stolen goods during the colonial era. The removed mask is one of the so-called “Bronze of Benin”, looted in 1897 by British forces dur…

The former Nigerian president said in 2023 that works would be delivered to the traditional head of the region, not to the State.