00:00Europe holds the largest collection of African artefacts.
00:04So why haven't they been returned to their rightful owners?
00:09Major institutions like the British Museum, the Lover, or Germany's Pergamon Museum
00:15don't want to give up their star exhibits.
00:18Doing so would mean giving up on part of their reason to exist.
00:23For the Rautenstrauch Jost Museum in Germany,
00:26it became clear that the artefacts should go back to where they belong.
00:31Curators searched the museum's archives and found more than 90 of the so-called Benin Bronzes.
00:37The Kingdom of Benin was a powerful West African Empire,
00:41located in what is now Southern Nigeria.
00:44It flourished for centuries, known for its sophisticated political system,
00:49remarkable art, and vast trade networks.
00:54For art historian Pedro Leriwola,
00:57removing the inventory numbers from the bronzes was a powerful moment.
01:02It's like putting numbers on people and putting them in jail.
01:06So taking them off is preparing them to go to Benin.
01:09Taking off those marks that have no meaning in the culture.
01:12And we don't put numbers on ancestors.
01:16The Benin Bronzes became a symbol of the fight to return art looted during the colonial era.
01:23The provenance of the objects is clear.
01:25British colonial forces looted them in a brutal raid on the Kingdom of Benin in 1897.
01:31Thousands were killed as the royal palace was plundered.
01:35Since then, generations have waited for their return.
01:39For me, the most important thing is the change of ownership.
01:45And that is the change of power.
01:49Because ownership means control over research, over history, over culture.
01:54When Germany returned the first 22 artifacts in 2022,
01:58the plan was to build a museum for the statues in Nigeria with German support.
02:03But that never happened.
02:05Instead, former president Muhammadu Buhari handed them over to the royal family of Benin in Edo State.
02:12A lot of people weren't happy.
02:14They asked, shouldn't the public be able to see them?
02:18And didn't the former Benin kings participate in the slave trade?
02:23Who gets to decide over the fate of millions of artifacts
02:27lying dormant in museum depots and private collections?
02:31The case has not made it easier for African communities to reclaim their stolen heritage.
02:37Some European museums have even paused returns, adding new conditions.
02:43All this for objects that were never theirs to begin with.
02:48But I am not surprised if they were able to experience the slaves.
02:50I don't know about this in the same way as the homeless are any wonder-
02:51That isn't a business.
02:53But I do not know about it.
02:54So at the same time, no one is a living room.
02:55I'm sorry, I am sorry.
02:57I am sorry, I am not a living room as an elder one.
02:58For a symbol of a symbol of the origin, I am sorry.
03:00This is in December 2,000.
03:01But I am sorry, the new world has been임.
03:02The fear associated with these two things that even may have been missing from Europe,
03:04You must have been very sad.
03:06So I am sorry, I am sorry.
03:08I am sorry.
03:09You must be having an inferior perspective on this spot
03:12You must have evenosed from Europe.
03:13But I am sorry, I am sorry.
03:14I am sorry.
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