Statement on the handling of the Benin Bronzes in German museums and institutions

“I am impressed by the meeting and the common understanding shaping its result. Now it is crucial to intensify the conversations with Nigeria and to develop a concrete roadmap with our partners. I would like to thank the German museums involved in the decision and their political stakeholders for the trust they have placed in me and Hermann Parzinger to contribute to enable first restitutions in 2022 with Andreas Görgen and the Federal Foreign Office and to coordinate the process within the German museum landscape with the “Contact Point for Collections from Colonial Contexts in Germany”. This result can also be seen as a wonderful outcome of the long trust-building work within the Benin Dialogue Group and I am pleased that the Digital Benin Project, supported by the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation, has been recognized as an important international platform for digitally reuniting Benin collections. The Hamburg world trading port served as an important entry point for the transfer of a large number of Benin works to Germany and continental Europe. It has great symbolic value to participate from here in the planning of returns.”

Barbara Plankensteiner, Director MARKK and Co-Speaker of Benin Dialogue Group

Statement on the handling of the Benin Bronzes in German museums and institutions