With one foot already out the door, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has signed a decree that could potentially affect the return of thousands of stolen works of art by Western museums. These are the famous Benin Bronzes, treasures of bronze, wood and ivory, which in recent years have become central to the worldwide discussion about the restitution of looted art.
Buhari, whose term expires later this month, recently transferred all rights to the famed Benin Bronzes to Oba Ewuare II, the king whose former kingdom had its art treasures looted by the British in 1897. With this, the president not only surprised the European and American museums with whom Nigeria recently signed restitution agreements, but also the officials who were closely involved in this.
Read also: Reluctantly, the West begins to return Nigeria’s art treasures
‘Totally blown away’
These agreements are state to state. Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), which is responsible for managing national museums and antiquities, conducted all negotiations on behalf of the government.
“We were completely overwhelmed,” says an official, who wishes to remain anonymous because of his position (his name is known to the newspaper). “It worst-case scenario is that the restitution process that we have fought so hard for is being delayed by all the confusion that has now arisen.”
According to the declaration, signed by the president at the end of March, all “bronzes” must be returned to the Oba (the king) “as the original owner and custodian of the cultural heritage and tradition of the people of the Kingdom of Benin” and he is also responsible for managing them ‘in all places where they are kept’.
According to Nigerian law, that task has been assigned to the national museum commission.
‘Respect for traditional leaders’
“The president probably acted on the assumption that he was doing something right,” the official says. “In Nigeria, traditional leaders are still highly respected. Especially this Oba. But how is he going to manage antiquities in our national museums? He has no such right at all. The law takes precedence over anything, including a presidential statement.”
In Nigeria’s southern state of Edo, modern-day Benin (not to be confused with the separate West African country of the Republic of Benin), Buhari’s signature is celebrated as a victory. “The Oba has no intention of keeping the returned works locked away in his palace, away from the public. On the contrary,” says his brother, Prince Aghatise Erediauwa, over the phone. For example, there are plans for a Royal Museum and loan agreements remain in place.
‘Art of the Oba and Oba alone’
“This decision does not change that, except that it is now clear to the whole world that the Oba and the Oba alone are the rightful owners of the Benin bronzes.”
After all, it was from his great-great-grandfather’s palace that the works were taken by British soldiers 125 years ago, after which they were scattered in museums throughout Europe and the US. An event that also heralded the end of the kingdom, which was then swallowed up by a British protectorate. And then modern Nigeria.
Buhari’s decision thus also raises the question to whom looted art from Africa, but also Asia, for example, should actually be returned: to the traditional communities of the time or to the states whose borders were later drawn by their colonizers? For example, the Dutch policy is that restitution is done from state to state.
Controversy about international law
“That in itself is quite understandable, because it is easier and clearer,” says Evelien Campfens, a lawyer specializing in looted art and affiliated with Leiden University. “But you can argue whether this is not in contradiction with it international right in this area.” Such as the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It also deals with the return of cultural objects that have been taken from them.
In Germany, for example, where the government signed an agreement with Nigeria last summer to return 1,130 Benin works, the debate on this has now flared up again. So spoke a German emeritus professor in ethnology – and renowned opponent of Germany’s (in her words) “hasty restitution” – in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of a fiasco. “A public good now becomes private property.”
“Critics of restitution are now seizing this as their right. ‘See how naive you have been,’ says Hermann Parzinger, head of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz. “The fact remains that we only return works that have been irrefutably stolen. That’s the case here. And if you give something back, that is our position, you do it without any conditions.” In addition, he also says, it is not surprising that a local community wants to have a say in their heritage.
“After all, it is their heritage.”
Competing museum plans
In the background of Buhari’s interference there was something else entirely, namely: a personal feud between the Oba and the current governor of the state of Edo, whose families have many old grievances. In recent years, the latter has become closely involved in the discussions about the Benin bronzes, with plans for a new, ultra-modern museum in which the returned art treasures could be displayed.
To the frustration of the Oba, who has his own museum plans. “People who had no right to it at all, such as the governor, tried to claim the works and sideline the Oba,” says his brother Prince Erediauwa. “That is unacceptable.”
No one disputes that the Bronzes are from Benin and that the Oba is the personification of this, says the official involved with whom NRC spoke. “But when it comes to the management of antiquities of national importance, Benin cannot be an exception.” According to him, the Ministry of Justice is working on a new statement that has yet to be signed by President Buhari. Otherwise it is up to his successor.
A justice officer of the relevant department declined to comment on this when asked.