UK university to return pillaged sculpture to Nigeria

THE University of Aberdeen is scheduled to return a Benin bronze sculpture in weeks to Nigeria, which was pillaged by British soldiers in 1897.

It becomes the first public institution to have agreed to return a Benin bronze from a museum and the move puts pressure on other establishments to return sculptures and other artefacts to their places of origin - taken by colonial powers.

Museums in the UK are filled with artefacts from former colonies - including the subcontinent. The Victoria and Albert Museum has items that once belonged to former Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan while the Tower of London houses the famous Kohinoor diamond.

Aberdeen University acquired the sculpture depicting an "Oba" (king) of Benin at auction in 1957, and it is considered a classic example of Benin Late Period Art.

It was first taken in 1897, when a British military expedition attacked and destroyed Benin City, looting thousands of metal and ivory sculptures and carvings, known as the Benin bronzes, from the royal palace.

Benin City, in present-day southern Nigeria, during those times was the seat of a powerful west African kingdom.

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

A review of the museum's artefacts was done and Neil Curtis, head of museums and special collections said the Benin bronze sculpture "as having been acquired in a way that we now consider to have been extremely immoral.

"So we took a proactive approach to identify the appropriate people to discuss what to do".

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".