Oba of Benin Receives Two Looted Artefacts from US

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

The Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Ewuare II, the Oba of Benin Kingdom, yesterday received two artefacts, a mother hen and a bronze plaque from the University of Iowa Museum, United States of America.

The two artefacts were part of the several ones carted away during the 1897 invasion of Benin Kingdom by British soldiers.

The highly elated Oba, while receiving the returned artefacts in his palace, said the immediate past President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari made the ownership of artefacts very clearly through his recent gazette before he left office.

The Benin monarch alluded to some of the earlier ones returned to the palace, adding that his forebears started the process but he was able to accomplish the feat when he ascended the throne.

The royal father said what people see as mere artefacts were not just ordinary, “rather, they have spiritual implications which the mere mortals cannot understand.”

He further appealed to the political leaders to help preserve the traditions and customs of the land just as he said it should not be left to the traditional institutions alone.

Earlier, Mr. Cory Gundlach, a curator from the African Art, apologised to the Oba of Benin for using the artefacts as teaching materials in the university, just as he  apologised on behalf of his colleagues who had used the arts to teach thousands of students in the United States of America.

He assured the monarch of his determination to ensure that others that are kept elsewhere are returned to its original abode.