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.

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The artefact is a “Benin Bronze”, a priceless cultural object looted from modern-day Nigeria more than 120 years ago, now being removed from display and returned to its rightful home.

The Wereldmuseum (World Museum) in Leiden is restoring 113 of the ancient sculptures, the latest single return, as pressure mounts on Western governments and institutions to hand back the spoils of colonial oppression.

“These don’t belong here. They were violently taken, so they need to go back,” said museum director Marieke van Bommel in an interview. “This is a typical example of looted art,” added the 50-year-old.

The story of the Benin Bronzes is one of violence and tragedy. It began when nine British officers were killed on a trade mission to the then independent kingdom of Benin, in the south of present-day Nigeria.