Germany returned 22 Benin Bronzes — looted plaques and sculptures from Benin — to Nigeria on Tuesday. The initial step was part of a larger agreement made earlier this year to return all 1,130 artifacts to Nigeria.
Benin bronzes looted in the past and returned to Nigeria are examined during a handing over ceremony in Abuja, Nigeria, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022."Today, we are here to return the Benin Bronzes to where they belong: to the people of Nigeria,"Germany's Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock during the official handover ceremony of the first 22 bronzes.
"We are here to right a wrong ... It was wrong to take them, but it was also wrong to keep them," added Baerbock, calling Germany's initial refusal to return the artifacts"a story of European colonialism." Lai Mohammed, Minister for Information and Culture in Nigeria, Geoffrey Onyeama, Foreign Minister of Nigeria, Annalena Baerbock , Federal Foreign Minister, and Claudia Roth , Minister of State for Culture and Media, Taken with a miniature ivory mask during the ceremony for the return of the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria in Abuja, Dec. 20, 2022.,"A moment comes in the history of mankind that we are beckoned upon to do what is right. This moment beckoned and Germany seized it.
"Twenty years ago, even ten years ago, nobody could have anticipated these bronzes returning to Nigeria because the obstacles to achieving repatriation were seemingly insurmountable,"
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