The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has said that the biggest achievement of his ministry in the area of culture and tourism is the repatriation of hundreds of looted artefacts.
Mohammed disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja at the 26th edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) Administration Scorecard Series (2015-2023).
“During the period under review, efforts to repatriate artefacts looted from Nigeria – which we launched on November 28th 2019 – paid off handsomely, with a total of 1,130 Benin Bronzes heading home from Germany alone. The legal transfer of all the 1,130 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria from all German public museums was signed on July 7, 2022.
“The physical return has since commenced with the first batch accompanied to Nigeria in December 2022 by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Culture of Germany and an entourage of 80 top government and museums officials. Nigeria is currently at the forefront of global efforts on repatriation of antiquities to their countries of origin,” the minister said.
Mohammed said his ministry also succeeded in repatriating a 600-year-old Ife Terracotta from the Netherlands in October 2020.
He added that Benin Bronzes were also repatriated from the University of Aberdeen and Jesus College of the University of Cambridge as well as the Metropolitan Museum, New York. He added that the Horniman Museums and Gardens in London also in October 2022 signed the legal transfer of 72 Benin Bronzes.
Mohammed said his ministry was at an advanced stage of securing the repatriation of hundreds of antiquities from the Pitt Rivers Museum of the University of Oxford; the Ashmolean Museum of the University of Oxford.
He said hundreds of antiquities were also to be repatriated from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Cambridge; Glasgow
City Council in Scotland and National Museums of Scotland.
The minister disclosed that the Federal Government had begun the expansion of the National Museum, Benin City, to house some of the antiquities.
He added that the was working on developing a Royal Benin Museum. (NAN)
