Netherlands to return 119 artifacts to Nigeria

The Netherlands has become the latest western country to agree to return 119 stolen artifacts to Nigerian museums.

The artifacts, known as the Benin Bronzes and mostly housed in a museum in Leiden, were looted in the late 19th century by British soldiers from what is now Nigeria.

They will be returned at the request of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments.

Germany has also agreed to return the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria in July. Hundreds of artifacts were sold to collections such as the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, which has one of the world’s largest groups of historical objects from the Kingdom of Benin, estimated to include about 530 items, including 440 bronzes. Many of them date from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

Earlier this month, Ghana received artifacts kept by a United States museum after they were looted during the British colonial era.