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The information below indicates that the demand for the return of the Benin artefacts which the British looted in 1897 in the infamous Punitive Exhibition of 1897 is growing. This increase interest is no doubt due to the discussion on the exhibition, Benin Kings and Rituals: Court Arts from Nigeria'
now at the Art Institute of Chicago.

The statement in the first report about UNESCO is probably due to a misunderstanding or a misinformation.

Kwame Opoku, July 22,2008


BNC gives FG 21-day ultimatum to render account on Benin artefacts

Written by Simon Ebegbulem
Tuesday, 22 July 2008

THE Benin National Congress (BNC), a socio-cultural organization, yesterday, handed a 21-day ultimatum to the federal government to render account of all the Benin artifacts at its disposal or face the wrath of the people of Benin Kingdom.

It also called on the federal government, to dissolve the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) because of their alleged failure to recover the Benin artifacts estimated at over one hundred million dollars, that were looted during the British invasion of the ancient Benin Kingdom.
In a statement signed by the National President of the BNC, Mr Aiyemenkhue Edokpolo made available to Vanguard, the group expressed their frustrations in bringing back the stolen artifacts, regretting the federal government through the NCMM had allegedly done nothing to recover the stolen artifacts which according to them “ is making the gods of our land unhappy”.

The BNC accused the Ministry of Tourism of allegedly using the object's continuous incarceration for “selfish interest as a means of traveling abroad on the guise of seeking their release and exhibition. We condemn in strong term the yes man attitude of the National Commission for Museum and Monuments NCMM in which they refused to employ radical measures in the reparation campaign.
“In our view, this is a tacit endorsement of the continuous incarceration of the objects. UNESCO has not helped matters because it prescribed conditions that are very stringent and almost insurmountable.

We expect to make a peaceful protest for the release of the objects but intelligent information available to us indicate that they are taking advantage of the jamboree, this is perhaps so because a Benin man is not the curator of Benin Museum or Director” it stated.

It therefore declared that “we hereby give a 21days ultimatum to the Federal Government of Nigeria to render an account of all Benin artifacts currently at its disposal and dissolve the National Commission for Museums and Monuments because they have succeeded in trading with our metaphysical object for their own good.

The minister has been carrying on as a tribal Minister, seeking the UNESCO accreditation of some cultural centers in which are insignificant to the least cultural centres in Edo State .
“The federal government should remember that patriotic Benins volunteered these objects for our collective good as a country and they as well as their offspring feel betrayed by the look warm attitude of the NCMM whom have failed to account for these objects” it stated.

VANGUARD ,July 22.2008.

Benin rulers renew campaign for artefacts' retrieval in U.S.

By Tajudeen Sowole (Lagos) and Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu (Benin)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008

A GLOBAL arts event in Chicago, the United States of America (USA), has offered the Benin traditional institution an opportunity to remind the international community of the need to return all artefacts stolen from the ancient town.

The campaign for the recovery of the priceless art works was re-opened by representatives of the Benin royal house at an exhibition of antiquities carted away from the kingdom in the 18th century by Europeans.

The event tagged Benin - Kings and Rituals, Court Arts from Nigeria, which opened last week at Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA will run till September 21, 2008. It has on display over 200 artefacts of Benin origin. Continued    Source: Kwame Opoku, Dr.

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Other Articles by Kwame Opoku, Dr.