The UK’s Horniman museum announced on Sunday that it will return the ownership of 72 Benin City artifacts to the Nigerian government, making it the first taxpayer-funded British museum to do so.
The south London museum said the objects were “forcibly removed from Benin City during the British military incursion in February 1897,” the year in which the British Empire annexed the Kingdom of Benin, now a part of southern Nigeria.
The collection is comprised of 12 brass plaques known as Benin bronzes and other objects including a brass cockerel altarpiece, ivory and brass ceremonial objects, brass bells, a key “to the king’s palace,” and household items such as fans and baskets….