Zurich Transfers Ownership Of Looted Benin Bronzes To Nigeria

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Zurich's Museum Rietberg Transfers Ownership of 11 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria as Restitution Momentum Builds

A set of 11 objects taken during the 1897 British assault on Edo, the former capital of the Kingdom of Benin, has been legally transferred from Switzerland's Museum Rietberg to Nigeria, according to the city of Zurich, which oversees the museum.

The works belong to the group widely referred to as the Benin Bronzes, a catchall term that obscures their material range: these pieces, made between the 16th and 19th centuries, include carvings and cast works in wood, ivory, brass, and bronze. All were removed from the royal palace in Edo during the raid, then dispersed across Western collections, becoming central to Nigeria's long-running campaign to recover cultural heritage taken under colonial violence.

Two of the 11 objects will be physically sent to Nigeria, while the remaining nine will stay at Museum Rietberg on loan, even as their ownership shifts. Among the works highlighted by Zurich are a commemorative bronze head dating to around 1850, depicting the ancestor of a chief, and an ivory tusk from the 17th or 18th century that recounts the story of a king, or oba. Both would have been installed on ancestral shrines within the palace complex, functioning as ritual objects rather than decorative art.

Zurich's decision follows a claim submitted two years ago by Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), filed on behalf of the Nigerian government and the Kingdom of Benin. In a statement, Zurich mayor Corine Mauch framed the transfer as a matter of civic responsibility:“The city of Zurich takes its responsibility seriously. We are convinced that a fair treatment of items of cultural heritage means admitting and actively rectifying past injustices.”

The move lands amid a broader acceleration of restitution efforts across Europe and the United Kingdom. Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge University recently announced that it had returned 116 Benin bronzes to Nigeria, one of the largest single transfers to date.

Even as returns increase, questions of access and stewardship remain unresolved. Around 150 original works have been physically returned to Nigeria over the past five years, but none are currently on public display. A new Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) in Benin City had been expected to provide a major home for restituted objects, but that plan was scrapped in 2023 after Nigeria's federal government granted ownership of the bronzes to Ewuare II, the current ceremonial Oba of Benin and a descendant of the royal line that once held the works. Ewuare II has since said he intends to build a royal museum for their presentation.

For European museums, the Rietberg transfer underscores a model that is increasingly visible in restitution negotiations: separating legal title from physical custody through long-term loans. For Nigeria, it adds another formal acknowledgment that the Benin works were not simply“collected,” but taken - and that the terms of their future display are now being renegotiated on Nigerian ground.

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