FG launches Campaign to repatriate looted/smuggled Artifacts – TheNigerialawyer

The Federal Government has launched the campaign for the return
and restitution of Nigeria’s looted and smuggled Artifacts from
around the world.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,
launched the campaign at a press conference in Lagos on
Thursday.

“With this announcement, we are putting on notice all those who
are holding on to Nigeria’s cultural property anywhere in the world
that we are coming for them, using all legal and diplomatic
instruments available. Gentlemen, we are under no illusion that
this will be an easy task, but no one should also doubt our
determination to make a success of this campaign,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said Nigeria cannot imagine by what logic an Ife
Bronze or a Benin Bronze or a Nok Terracotta can belong to any
other part of the globe except to the people of Nigeria, whose
ancestors made them.

“We have never laid claim to the Mona Lisa or a Rembrandt. Those
who looted our heritage resources, especially during the 19th
century wars, or those who smuggled them out of the country for
pecuniary reasons, have simply encouraged the impoverishment of our
heritage and stealing of our past,” he said.

The Minister said these timeless and priceless pieces of work
are an important part of the nation’s past, its history, and
heritage resource, and that allowing them to sit in the museums of
other nations robs Nigeria of our history.

He said in its quest to diversify the economy by leveraging on
the culture and tourism sector, the government considers these
priceless artifacts as critical components of the diversification
drive.

Alhaji Mohammed said in launching the campaign, Nigeria is
emboldened by Article 4 of the UNESCO 1970 Convention, to which
most nations subscribe, which identifies the categories of cultural
property that form part of the cultural heritage of each member
state, thereby belonging to that State.

He said by the provisions of the Article, they include cultural
property created by the individual or collective genius of
nationals of the State concerned, and cultural property which has
been the subject of a freely agreed exchange or received as a gift
or purchased legally with the consent of the competent authorities
of the country of origin of such property.

The Minister also said the Heads of State and Government of the
ECOWAS Region met in December 2018 in Abuja and adopted a Political
Declaration on the return of cultural property to their countries
of origin, adding: ”We are bound by this Declaration, which has
further brought discussions towards a Plan of Action.”

He called on every museum and person holding on to the nation’s
heritage resources anywhere in the world to initiate dialogue with
the federal government, saying: ”We urge them to identify what is
in their collections, transparently make them public, approach us
for discussion on terms of return and restitution, as well as
circulation and loans.

“They must acknowledge that ownership resides in us. They must
be ready to sign agreements and Memoranda of Understanding in this
regard, and they must be ready to release some of these antiquities
for immediate return to Nigeria.”

He said the government will kick-start the campaign with a quest
to retrieve the Ife Bronze Head, which was one of the items stolen
in 1987 when one of the country’s national museums was broken
into.

”After it was brought to an auction in London two years ago, the
auction house observed that it was an Ife Bronze Head which belongs
to the ICOM (International Council of Museums) Red List of cultural
goods that are deemed to be the most vulnerable to illicit
traffic.

”Now, the London Metropolitan police has seized the object, and
it has invited Nigeria to make a claim, otherwise they will have to
return it to the fellow claiming ownership. We have now started
work on the return of the Ife Bronze head to Nigeria.,” the
Minister said.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has expressed delight at the
decision of the Cambridge University’s Jesus College to repatriate
a Benin Bronze Cockerel, known as ”okukor”, to Nigeria.

“Considering the hundreds of Benin Bronzes looted during that
occupation, the decision to return the cockerel is like a drop in
the ocean, but it is an important drop and we welcome it,” the
Minister said.

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