Netherlands to return 119 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

By Ope Adetayo

ABUJA (Reuters) - The Netherlands has agreed to return more than 100 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, the latest European country to return cultural artefacts to Africa, the Dutch embassy in Abuja said on Wednesday.

Nigeria is on a quest to get thousands of intricate bronze sculptures and castings that were looted by British soldiers during a raid on the then-separate Kingdom of Benin, located in what is now southwestern Nigeria, in 1897.

The Dutch embassy said in a statement the Netherlands would return 119 artefacts following an agreement signed between its education minister and the head of Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments.

The artefacts are expected to arrive in Nigeria later this year.

The collection includes 113 bronzes that are part of the Dutch State Collection while the remainder will be returned by the Municpality of Rotterdam.

"The Netherlands is returning the Benin Bronzes unconditionally, recognising that the objects were looted during the British attack on Benin City in 1897, and should have never ended up in the Netherlands," the embassy statement said.

The statement quoted National Commission for Museums and Monuments director general Olugbile Holloway saying this would represent the single largest return of the ancient antiquities.

(Reporting by Ope Adetayo; Editing by Angus MacSwan)