Sweden returns statues stolen by the British to Nigeria
Statues stolen from the Kingdom of Benin are now being returned to Nigeria's federal heritage authority, while Sweden is returning sacred objects from the Kallawaya people to Bolivia.
The final phase of two separate repatriation processes from Sweden began on Thursday. The 77 Kalawaya artifacts, including a human remains, were retrieved from the warehouses of the World Culture Museum in Gothenburg, to be transferred to the Archaeological Museum in La Paz.
The collection had been in Sweden since 1970, when it was purchased by the then director of the Gothenburg Ethnographic Museum. According to the Museum of World Cultures, it had been illegally exported from Bolivia. In 2023, the Swedish government decided to return the objects.
At the same time, Britta Sønderqvist, head of the State Museums of World Culture, is in Lagos to sign the transfer of the 39 objects from Benin that Sweden is now returning. This is part of the thousands of items stolen British forces in the late 19th century from the Edo people, in the then Kingdom of Benin.
However, six of the 39 objects will remain in Sweden on loan for ten years.
“The history of Benin objects is closely intertwined with the colonial era and the power relations that characterized that period,” Britta Søderqvist says in a press release.
As he points out, museums around the world are reexamining their collections in light of changing perceptions of ethics.
