The artefacts were returned to their ancestral home this weekend.
Two Benin bronzes were returned to a traditional palace in Nigeria, more than a century after they were pillaged by British troops, raising hopes that thousands more artefacts could finally be returned to their ancestral home.
At a colourful ceremony to mark the return of a cockerel sculpture and head of an Oba or king, spokesman Charles Edosonmwan for the Oba palace in Benin City noted that some of the bronzes were kept as far away as New Zealand, the United States and Japan.
The artefacts known as the Benin Bronzes now mostly in Europe were stolen by explorers and colonisers from the mighty Benin Kingdom, now southwestern Nigeria, and are among Africa’s most significant heritage objects. They were created as early as the 16th century onwards, according to the British Museum.
“They are not just art but they are things that underline the significance of our spirituality,” Charles Edosonmwan said at the ceremony attended by traditional leaders.
