The Rietberg Museum has announced plans to return a number of artefacts linked to the looting of the historic Kingdom of Benin, marking another step in Europe’s ongoing restitution of cultural heritage to Nigeria.
The museum, established in the early 1950s and built upon a collection amassed in the 1920s and 1930s by German-Swiss banker Eduard von der Heydt, confirmed that 11 objects in its permanent collection will be transferred to Nigeria.
The transfer will be made to the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, representing the Nigerian government.
The artefacts trace their origins to Benin City, the capital of the former kingdom, which was invaded and looted during the Benin Expedition of 1897. Many of the kingdom’s renowned bronze and ivory works were subsequently dispersed across Europe.
Among the items slated for return are two objects described as highly significant by Rietberg director Annette Bhagwati. One is a commemorative bronze head dating to around 1850, representing the ancestor of a chief and originally placed in a royal ancestral shrine.
The second is an 18th-century ivory tusk that once stood in the Royal Palace, mounted on a bronze memorial head and depicting the story of an Oba from the 17th or 18th century.
“These two works, which are ‘ritual objects of great importance’, will be sent back to Nigeria, likely this summer,” Bhagwati said.
The ivory tusk’s journey to Switzerland reflects the complex paths taken by looted artefacts. It passed through British collectors and was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in London in 1962 before eventually being acquired by the Rietberg in 1993 through a Zurich dealer.
While ownership of all 11 objects will be transferred, nine will remain in Zurich under agreed arrangements. According to Bhagwati, this reflects Nigeria’s interest in maintaining the global visibility of Benin’s artistic legacy.
“The Nigerian side was very interested in the idea that the history and the artistry of Benin would still be told in Switzerland,” she said.
One such object is a 17th-century pendant bronze mask, also looted during the 1897 raid on the Royal Palace. After passing through German and American collections following a 1902 auction, and later returning to Europe via a Dutch dealer in 2009, the piece will remain at the Rietberg as a permanent loan despite the change in ownership.
The restitution forms part of the Benin Initiative Switzerland, launched in 2021 under the leadership of the Rietberg Museum. The initiative examined the provenance of Benin artefacts in Swiss collections and found that at least 55 objects were likely connected to the 1897 looting.
The move places Zurich alongside other European institutions, including Berlin’s Ethnologisches Museum and the Wereldmuseum Leiden, that have committed to returning Benin artefacts, as international pressure grows for the repatriation of cultural heritage taken during colonial-era expeditions.
Boluwatife Enome
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