Cultural Restitution

April 23, 2021
FINLAND
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FINLAND

Updated May 2025

May 2025

A three-legged royal stool from the West African kingdom of Dahomey has been returned from the National Museum of Finland to Benin

rfi.fr/en/africa


November 2024

Following an official request from the Republic of Benin, the National Museum of Finland is preparing to return a katakle, a ceremonial royal stool acquired in 1939

sttinfo.fi


May 2023

Finland returns two fragments of sacred stones, stolen by Finnish missionaries from Ondonga in northern Namibia, a traditional kingdom of the Ovambo people

The Heritage Times


November 2021

The Sami Museum Siida in Inari, northern Lapland has received 2,200 objects from the National Museum of Finland

Museum Next


April 2021

The National Museum of Finland is to repatriate 2,200 artefacts, amassed between 1830 and 1998, to the indigenous Sami people in northern Lapland

The Art Newspaper



More News

Cambridge University’s transfer of legal title of Benin artefacts to Nigeria may lead others to do the same

February 14, 2026
This week’s announcement that Cambridge University has transferred legal ownership of its collection of 116 Benin artefacts to Nigeria could be hugely significant

DCMS will review its exclusion of national collections from returning cultural objects on moral grounds

February 4, 2026
Britain’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport has confirmed it will review the exclusion it imposed on national collections that prevents them from returning cultural objects on moral grounds

University of Edinburgh returns six Native American skulls to Muscogee Nation

January 30, 2026
Six Native American skulls, acquired to advance the pseudoscience of phrenology, have been returned by the University of Edinburgh to the Muscogee Nation, a self-governed Native American Tribal Nation