A formal request has been received by Glasgow Life from Nigeria for the return of cultural artefacts held in the city's museums.
The request concerns a total of eight bronze objects within the city's civic collection which have been identified to the sacking of Benin City by the British Army in 1897.
It follows the formation of the Benin Dialogue Group, a consortium of major national cultural institutions in the UK and Europe which was formed in an attempt to end the decades of wrangling over the estimated 4,000 bronze and ivory artefacts looted in 1897.
The city’s collection holds eight bronzes and another 21 cultural artefacts whose exact provenance has not been established. They include objects typically placed on the ancestral altars of the Obas of Benin.
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Back in August last year, Glasgow Life was given authorisation, on behalf of Glasgow City Council, to begin dialogue regarding the repatriation of the objects, with discussions then starting with the Royal Family of Benin's official representatives in November.
A spokesperson for Glasgow Life, said: “Glasgow Life Museums has been working with the Royal Family of Benin's official representatives, the Nigerian Museums and Monuments Commission, on the repatriation of Glasgow’s Benin collection to Nigeria since November 2021.
"A formal request for the return of the collection has been received, which will be passed to Glasgow City Council's cross-party Working Group for Repatriation and Spoliation for their consideration.”
Other repatriations have taken place over the years, with Glasgow’s civic collections the subject of a number of requests in the 1990s - such as the high-profile 1999 repatriation of the Ghost Dance shirt, which was the first repatriation of an artefact from a European Museum to an indigenous community.
