Three Swiss museums have returned 18 royal and religious artifacts from the Kingdom of Benin to Nigeria, marking another significant repatriation of the so-called Benin Bronzes.
A handover ceremony took place today at the University of Zurich between Swiss Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider and Nigeria’s Minister of Culture, Hannatu Musa Musawa. The university returned 14 objects from its Ethnographic Museum, while two additional Benin Bronzes came from Museum Rietberg Zurich and another two from the Musée d’Ethnographie de Genève.
The Benin Bronzes refer to the approximately 5,000 bronze sculptures, ceremonial objects, and ivory carvings looted by British forces from the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now Nigeria, during the 1897 punitive expedition. Scattered across museums and private collections worldwide via illicit channels, the bronzes have become emblematic of efforts by formerly colonized countries to reclaim cultural heritage, as well as the broader—and often contentious—debate over the ethics of ethnographic collections.
Among the artifacts returned by Switzerland is a Benin Eroro, a four-sided ceremonial bell that played a central role in royal rites, political functions, and battle. The bell’s pyramidal face is decorated with depictions of deceased kings and queens, and its toll was believed to invoke ancestral spirits. The bell was joined by a container for herbs and medicines depicting the head of Ofoe, a divine emissary of the deity Ogie’uwu. Without a torso, the container balances on three legs.
According to the University of Zurich, some of the returned artifacts will be exhibited at the National Museum in Lagos, while most will be transferred to Edo State and temporarily housed at the National Museum in Benin City, under the care of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM).
The Swiss handover is the latest in a steady stream of restitutions by European museums to Nigeria. Last year, the NCMM received 113 Benin Bronzes from the Netherlands—the largest single return of Benin antiquities directly linked to the 1897 British looting, according to the commission.
