The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, United States has announced it would return stolen artifacts to Nigeria.
In a recent statement, the museum said two 16th-century brass plaques manufactured at the Court of Benin would be returned to Nigeria.
The museum acquired these Benin artifacts in 1991 by a New York collector who got them from the international art market at a date that is unknown and under circumstances that were not clear.
The artifacts were among those looted during the British military occupation of Benin in 1897.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art got in touch with Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) to seek clarification on the status of artifacts and the museum is ready to hand them over to the Director General of NCMM, Professor Abba Isa Tijani.
It should be recalled that the museum has also facilitated the handing over of a 14th-century brass Ife Head from the Wunmonije Compound after it was offered it to the institution for purchase by a seller.
Nigeria’s Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, commended the sense of justice exhibited by the museum, and praised the new trend of returning artifacts in the West to their local communities.
He said: “Nigeria enjoins other museums to take a cue from this. The art world can be a better place if every possessor of cultural artifacts considers the rights and feelings of the dispossessed.”
