Talks continue on handling Benin bronzes and on a roadmap for planned returns in 2022
Press release from 07/08/2021
Nigerian delegation visits Germany: guests view Humboldt Forum and objects in Dahlem
As part of a visit to Germany organised by the Federal Foreign Office, the Nigerian partners and Sir David Adjaye, the architect of the "Edo State Museum of West African Art" (EMOWAA) being built in Benin City, visited the Humboldt Forum and objects from Benin in the Dahlem depot of the Ethnological Museum of the National Museums in Berlin. Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK, had already visited the partners in Nigeria in May together with Andreas Görgen, Head of the Department of Culture and Communication at the Federal Foreign Office, and Barbara Plankensteiner, Director of MARKK in Hamburg and co-spokesperson of the Benin Dialogue Group. The guests in Berlin were H.E. Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, H.E. Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki, Governor, Edo State, HRH Crown Prince Ezelekhae Ewuare, Prof. Abba Isa Tijani, Director General, National Commission for Museums and Monuments and Mr Phillip Ihenacho, Director of the Board, Legacy Restoration Trust.
Mr Parzinger said of the partners' visit: "Our declared goal is the substantial return of objects from the historic Kingdom of Benin to Nigeria as early as 2022 - and we are getting one step closer to this goal with every conversation, which is why this visit by the Nigerian partners to Berlin was so important. We must now maintain this pace of talks so that next year, the first part of the EMOWAA, the so-called pavilion with special display depots, exhibition areas, study halls and rooms for meetings and exchange, will be able to show objects that are still in Berlin today. The roadmap, which should lead to the planned restitution in 2022, is gradually taking shape."
Lars-Christian Koch, Director of the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art, emphasised: "I am very pleased that we were able to deepen our knowledge of the bronzes during the visit. We also attach great importance to cooperative collaboration and the expertise of our partners in Nigeria for the coming years."
In Dahlem, the guests inspected some of the original artefacts. In total, the Ethnological Museum owns around 500 objects from the historical Kingdom of Benin, of which around 400 are bronzes. Most of the objects were acquired by the Berlin museum on the art market, but most of them were captured as a result of the British conquest of Benin in 1897.