#Abba Isa Tijani

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Met returns three artworks looted under British colonial rule to Nigeria

Met returns three artworks looted under British colonial rule to Nigeria

FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Visitors walk along the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, March 6, 2006. REUTERS/Keith Bedford/File Photo New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday officially returned three works of art to Nigeria that were looted in the 19th century, as museums make increasing efforts to repatriate some foreign treasures. The two 16th-century brass plaques and a…

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Germany to return stolen bronze sculptures to Nigeria

The German government decided to return century old bronze sculptures to Nigeria which were stolen from there in the 19th century during the British occupation and ended up being sold to several European museums. Those that are exhibited on German soil will be returned to Nigeria in 2022 when a new museum in Benin City is scheduled to be opened.

This is the first time political authorities in Germany could be moved to make such a step aside from Art stolen during the Nazi times. The “Contact point for collections from colonial contexts in Germany“ is set to continue determining the rightful owners of other stolen artifacts and will continuously publish its findings on their website.

Abba Isa Tijani, director if the Nigerian commission for museums and monuments says that this is an important event for the entire country, since 90% of the population never had the chance to admire the sculptures exhibited outside of Nigeria and that the returning is an admission of the fact that the works of art were stolen from Nigeria.

Critics say that, although this is an important first step, an unconditional obligation to return any looted art should become a general law.

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FG will take possession of looted Benin bronzes, says Lai Mohammed

FG will take possession of looted Benin bronzes, says Lai Mohammed

Pic.2. From left: Special Assistant to the President attached to the Office of the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Segun Adeyemi; Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Director-General, National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Prof. Abba Isa-Tijani, during a news conference on the repatriation of Nigeria’s stolen artifacts, in Lagos on Saturday (17/7/21).…

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Obaseki gets nod, kudos for devt of arts, culture as FG backs realisation of EMOWAA

Obaseki gets nod, kudos for devt of arts, culture as FG backs realisation of EMOWAA

The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has received the commendation of the Federal Government for his administration’s efforts at sustaining the rich cultural heritage of the Benin people. The Director General (DG) of the National Commission For Museum and Monuments (NCMM), Prof. Abba Isa Tijani, who gave the commendation while delivering his welcome address at the NCMM management retreat…

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UK university to return looted Benin Bronze to Nigeria

UK university to return looted Benin Bronze to Nigeria

The University of Aberdeen says it will return a Benin Bronze to Nigeria within weeks, one of the first public institutions to do so more than a century after Britain looted the sculptures and auctioned them to Western museums and collectors.

The university said on Thursday that the sculpture of an Oba, or ruler, of the Kingdom of Benin, had left Nigeria in an “extremely immoral” fashion, leading it to reach out to authorities in 2019 to negotiate its return.

Pressure has mounted to return to their places of origin the Benin Bronzes – actually copper alloy relief sculptures – and other artefacts taken by colonial powers.

Neil Curtis, Aberdeen’s head of museums and special collections, said the Bronze, purchased in 1957, had been “blatantly looted” 124 years ago by British soldiers.

“It became clear we had to do something,” Curtis said.

Britain’s soldiers seized thousands of metal castings and sculptures from the Kingdom of Benin, then separate from British-ruled Nigeria, in 1897.

The university called it “one of the most notorious examples of the pillaging of cultural treasures associated with 19th-century European colonial expansion”.

“It would not have been right to have retained an item of such great cultural importance that was acquired in such reprehensible circumstances,” said university vice-chancellor George Boyne.

Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed called the move a “step in the right direction” and urged other holders of Nigerian antiquity “to emulate this”.

Professor Abba Isa Tijani, director-general of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments, said the importance of displaying the Bronze inside Nigeria for the first time in more than 120 years was inexpressible.

“It’s part of our identity, part of our heritage… which has been taken away from us for many years,” Tijani said.

The British Museum, which holds hundreds of the sculptures, has alongside several other museums formed a Benin Dialogue Group to discuss displaying them in Benin City. It has said discussions are ongoing.

Germany is in talks to return 440 Benin Bronzes as early as the autumn, according to newspaper reports, while the University of Cambridge’s Jesus College said it had finalised approvals in December to return one Bronze. Tijani said US museums would also return two more Bronzes.

The governor of Edo state, of which Benin City is the capital, plans to build a centre to store and study the returned artefacts by the end of 2021, and a permanent museum by 2025.

Artist and Edo state native Victor Ehikhamenor said he hoped the decision would prompt others to follow suit.

“Because some of these things are missing from our environment, people are not able to contextualise where we are coming from,” Ehikhamenor said.

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