Today, at a handover ceremony in Cambridge, Jesus College became the first institution in the world to return a looted Benin Bronze to the authorities in Nigeria.

Further UK institutions are set to follow their lead, with the University of Aberdeen due to hand over their superb Benin Head of an Oba at another ceremony tomorrow.

“We are all thrilled at seeing this day arrive, when the Bronze is finally returning home,” said Dr Véronique Mottier, who chaired the College’s Legacy of Slavery Working Party (LSWP), set up to explore the historical, legal and moral status of the College’s ownership of a Benin Bronze statue of a cockerel, known as an ‘Okukor’.

“But we are also painfully aware of having deprived its rightful owners for so long of its presence and offer our heartfelt apologies for this historic wrong,” Mottier added.

The cockerel, dating to the 16th or 17th century, was donated to the College in 1905 by George William Neville, a banker and shipping agent who lived in West Africa. Neville had travelled to Benin City just days after the British raid on the City and grabbed whatever he wanted - including this proud figure of a cockerel.

Also attending today's ceremony, hosted by Sonita Alleyne OBE, Master of Jesus College, was the immediate younger brother of the current Oba of Benin, Prince Aghatise Erediauwa. Thanking the student body, the LSWP and Sonia Alleyne in particular for her prompt decision to recognise the Okukor as a “royal ancestral heirloom”, Prince Erediauwa praised the College for “challenging the erroneous argument that stolen art cannot be returned.”

The cockerel was presented to Professor Abba Isa Tijani, Director-General of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, who said, “we would like other museums and institutions across the world to take this opportunity and follow suit.”

It’s very likely that other non-State museums and institutions in the UK will follow suit. Glasgow City Council, Bristol City Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford are just three of 45 institutions in the UK known to have Benin artefacts in their collections, all of whom are considering their repatriation. Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands have already announced their state collections will be repatriating colonial artefacts that were looted as spoils of war.

But Britain’s State collections are likely to remain unmoved. The restrictions on returning stolen artefacts, as set out within the British Museum Act, means the largest collection of Benin Bronzes in the world - some 900 - will remain in London.  At least for the time being.

There are reports of a 'high level' delegation and a formal letter from Nigeria to the British Museum demanding the return of the Bronzes. However, only a major change in heart by the present government (unlikely) or among the Museum’s trustees (still to be tested), or if an amendment to the 1963 Act is approved by Parliament, would the Museum be legally entitled to return some or all of its collection of Benin Bronzes. Until then, the British Museum’s collection of Bronzes is likely to stay firmly put.

Photo: Sonita Alleyne OBE, Master of Jesus College, and Professor Abba Isa Tijani, Director-General of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments with the Okukor

After this was written.....

A further handover ceremony of a looted Benin Bronze head of an Oba was held  at the University of Aberdeen the following day (Thursday 28 October 2021). "Although the University had legal title," explained Neil Curtis, Head of Museums and Special Collections, "it did not have moral title."  He expressed hope that the Aberdeen and Cambridge repatriations "are a first step in the return of other looted Benin Bronzes in Scotland and elsewhere."  Addressing the issue of where returned artefacts will be displayed, Prince Aghatise Erediauwa, the current Oba's younger brother, added: "In conjunction with the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, the Palace of the Oba of Benin and the government of Edo States where Benin is now located have agreed on plans for a Benin royal museum, which will be  open to the public and will house the majority of these bronze works that are coming back home."  References then made by the Prince  to the level of support they are receiving from other governments and museums suggest the majority of returned artefacts are heading to the proposed new Edo Museum of West African Art, not to the Oba's own proposed Benin Royal Museum. 

The official ceremony marking the return of both Benin objects finally took place on Saturday 19 February 2022 at the Oba's Palace in Benin.