Switzerland’s Rietberg Museum to Return Benin Bronzes

Eleven Benin Bronzes held by Switzerland’s Museum Rietberg will be returned to Nigeria by the City of Zurich, after a formal restitution agreement was signed this week.

The works are among several thousand artefacts looted from the Royal Palace of the Kingdom of Benin, located in Benin City in present-day Nigeria, by British troops in 1897. They include a 19th century mask, a 17th/18th century tusk carved from ivory and an 18th/19th century bracelet featuring a horseman and animal figures.

Corine Mauch, mayor of Zurich city council, said: “The city of Zurich takes its responsibility seriously. We are convinced that a fair treatment of items of cultural heritage means admitting and actively rectifying past injustices.”

The work’s restitution follows a claim submitted in July 2024 by Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), on behalf of both the Nigerian government and the Kingdom of Benin.

NCMM’s director general Olugbile Holloway welcomed Zurich official’s decision to return the objects. 

He said: “This decision made by the City of Zurich will indeed go a long way in healing certain aspects of our fragmented colonial past and I have no doubt that the Benin Royal Palace, the Benin people, and all Nigerians will truly appreciate the symbolism of this significant return.”

Earlier this week the NCMM and the Kingdom of Benin determined that the Museum Rietberg would be permitted to exhibit some of the works on a loan basis, in order to “strengthen long-term dialogue with Nigeria”. The remaining works will be returned to Nigeria this summer.

In 2021, eight museums came together through Benin Initiative Switzerland to research the provenance of the works in their collections from Benin. It was found that, in total, 96 works were held by eight participating museums in Germany and French-speaking Switzerland, including nine at Musée d’ethnographie de Genève, 18 at the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich and 16 at Museum Rietberg.

The initiative, financed by Switzerland’s Federal Office of Culture, found that 11 of the 16 works held by Museum Rietberg had been or most likely had been looted and thus should be restituted. 

In a joint statement, Carine Ayélé Durand, Alice Hertzog and Annette Bhagwati, the respective directors of Musée d’ethnographie de Genève, the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich and Museum Rietberg, said that meticulous research had left them with no doubt that their museum’s collections contained looted objects.

“Returning these artworks from Benin to Nigeria makes it possible for the country to independently research, preserve, and share its own history,” the directors said.

“This represents a necessary stage in coming to terms with history and acts as a sign of respect, symbolising international cooperation in action.”

The Zurich Museum’s move comes just after a month after The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, UK, announced the return of 116 Benin bronzes to Nigeria, following a separate claim by the NMCC.

In November last year, a new Museum of West African Art was scheduled to open in Benin City, where it was expected to house returned bronzes. However, following protests at the museum’s opening event, its launch was delayed.