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AUTHOR: KWAME OPOKU, DR.

Anthropomorphic statue, King Ghzo, Dahomey, Republic of Benin. This is one of the Royal Dahomeyan statues that the French looted in 1832 and kept in France until restitution to the Republic of Benin on 10th November 2021.

Restitution Day: Remembrance And Reckoning

Nov 10, 2023 | Feature Article

As we stated in last year 39;s Restitution Day message, 39;On every Restitution Day,10 November, we shall take sto ...

Sep 28, 2023 | Feature Article

We were very surprised to read the following from a leading Nigerian newspaper reporting on a speech made by a German en ...

Sep 19, 2023 | Feature Article

39;The looting of Benin City and Maqdala were British crimes then and now: it should be a matter of national shame ...

Sep 7, 2023 | Feature Article

When I first saw the British Museum some decades ago, I was impressed, not to say overwhelmed, by the massive concrete s ...

Jun 5, 2023 | Feature Article

There have been intense debates recently in Nigeria on the question of the ownership and custody of returned looted arte ...

May 24, 2023 | Feature Article

One of the first things we learn about the Benin bronzes is that they were made for the Oba of Benin by a guild of b ...

May 21, 2023 | Feature Article

ldquo;Gold gleams throughout the Ashanti story: one wonders in retrospect whether the punitive expedition would have ...

May 14, 2023 | Feature Article

39;our research methods resemble the interrogations of an investigating magistrate much more than amicable conversa ...

May 2, 2023 | Feature Article

Readers will recall that in a previous article, I mentioned the recent Declaration of the Nigerian Federal Government th ...

Apr 17, 2023 | Feature Article

lsquo; rsquo;Did the thieves acknowledge that they stole these objects, and that by stealing these objects they kill ...

Apr 6, 2023 | Feature Article

Readers know that the British Government and the British Museum are very reluctant to discuss issues of restitution and ...

Jan 19, 2023 | Feature Article

ldquo;The town burnt furiously, all these three days of rain failing in any way to impede the progress of the devour ...

Dec 7, 2022 | Feature Article

39;The looting of Benin City and Maqdala were British war crimes then and now: it should be a matter of national sh ...

Nov 7, 2022 | Feature Article

lsquo;The return of a work of art or record to the country which created it enables a people to recover part of ...

Sep 17, 2022 | Feature Article

We publish below a press release from Postkolonial Berlin urging Germany to surrender all ownership rights to coloni ...

Sep 15, 2022 | Feature Article

It does not matter (although many museums pretend it does) that the first of several Hague conventions was not pr ...

Kwame Opoku, Dr.
Kwame Opoku, Dr.

Former Legal Adviser, United Nations Office, Vienna.

Dr. Kwame Opoku writes about looted cultural objects