France to return looted treasures to Benin 129 years after their pillage

In April this year, Germany agreed to return to Nigeria, priceless artifacts that were stolen during the colonisation of Africa.

British troops looted thousands of artworks, which came to be known as the Benin Bronzes from the Kingdom of Benin, in present-day Nigeria, in 1897.

Following auctions in the open market, some of the bronzes ended up in museums and private collections across Europe and America.

They hold deep cultural significance to the peoples of Benin, and there has been growing international pressure to have them returned to their rightful owners.

This week, a Paris museum is exhibiting over a dozen colonial-era treasures taken from Benin in what will be the last time they are shown in France before they are handed back in a milestone gesture.

Comprising 26 pieces, from a trove of objects snatched by French forces in 1892, amid the ransacking of Abomey Palace, they will be shown at the Quai Branly Museum for just six days before being shipped to the West African country at the end of this month.

The treasures are from the Kingdom of Dahomey in the south of present-day Benin city and include the throne of Dahomey’s last king, Behanzin, three totemic statues, four palace doors, several portable altars, and three warrior dance staffs. They were seized when an expeditionary force led by Colonel Dodds entered Abomey, the capital of the Kingdom of Danhomé.

Dodds decided to donate 26 of the looted objects to the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro in Paris during the late 1890s. They have been in the Quai Branly since 2003. The move is part of a drive-by French President Emmanuel Macron to improve his country’s image in Africa, especially amongst young people who are increasingly questioning France’s role in the continent’s historical and current affairs.

Some directors at the museum have criticised the move claiming that the treasures are of “universal” interest, but I consider their call to be misplaced because even when the objects are repatriated to Africa, they will still be on public display in museums. Africa is no longer the “dark continent”!

Quai Branly president Emmanuel Kasarherou said he welcomed the “soul searching” that those calls have elicited about the provenance of artworks. The museum which has a vast trove of African artifacts has begun a sweeping review of its collection of over 300,000 objects.

The aim is “to identify works believed to have been taken through violence, without the owners’ consent, or as war booty or through the coercion of colonial administration”, he told AFP.

He emphasised that “Not all objects that are in European collections have been stolen, but what proportion were?” I believe the larger portion of African pieces were stolen or acquired dubiously.

An expert report commissioned by Macron counted some 90,000 African works in French museums, 70,000 at the Quai Branly alone.

Experts reckon that 85 to 90 per cent of African cultural artifacts were taken from the continent. But establishing how an object came into European hands can be tricky. Some were seized by colonial administrators, troops or doctors and passed on to descendants who in turn donated them to museums in Europe and America.

Others were presented as gifts to missionaries or acquired by African art collectors at the start of the 20th century or “discovered” during scientific expeditions.

France is not the only former colonial power to have been targeted by restitution requests. Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany have also taken a hard look at how they amassed their art collections.

In December 2020, lawmakers in France voted overwhelmingly in favour of returning 26 cherished artifacts that were taken during the colonial era to Senegal and Benin.

Belgium, for its part, has announced plans to return several objects looted from what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Benin is preparing a new museum for the restituted works in the city of Abomey which will be partly funded by the French government.

It is evident that the mounting international pressure for the return of these looted treasures is now bearing fruit.