Some of the finest works of African art in the world are in London, Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh. Many of them got there the same way: British soldiers took them from royal palaces in Kumasi in 1874 and 1896, and from Benin City in 1897. This guide covers how they were taken, what has been returned, what has not, and where you can see them now.
Walk into the Africa galleries of the British Museum and you are among masterpieces: brass plaques from the palace of the Oba of Benin, cast heads of kings and queen mothers, carved ivory, gold from the court of the Asantehene. They are beautiful. They are also evidence. Most of them arrived in Britain because British forces burned and looted the royal capitals that made them.
The debate over whether they should go back is now decades old, and since 2021 it has moved quickly. Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, American museums and several British institutions have handed objects or ownership back. The British Museum, which holds the largest collections, has not, and says the law prevents it. This page sets out the facts so you can judge for yourself, and so you know exactly what you are looking at when you visit.
"Benin Bronzes" is a collector's label. Most of the objects are brass, not bronze, and the group also includes carved ivory, wood and coral regalia. They come from the kingdom of Benin, the Edo state centred on Benin City in today's southern Nigeria. Do not confuse it with the modern Republic of Benin to the west, which was the kingdom of Dahomey.
For centuries, guilds of craftsmen working for the Oba (king) cast commemorative heads for royal ancestral altars, figures of court officials and hundreds of rectangular plaques that once covered the pillars of the palace. The plaques show warriors, chiefs, ceremonies and, from the 1500s, Portuguese traders with their long hair and guns. In effect, they are a visual archive of the kingdom's history. The brass itself often came from European trade goods, including the manillas, brass rings paid in exchange for goods and people.
The brass casters' guild still works in Benin City today, on Igun Street. The art did not die in 1897. Its archive was carried off.
By the 1890s Britain wanted control of the trade in palm oil and rubber in the Niger Delta, and the independent kingdom of Benin stood in the way. In January 1897 Acting Consul-General James Phillips set out for Benin City with a party of officials and African carriers, against warnings that the Oba could receive no visitors during an important festival. Edo chiefs ambushed the party. Most of them were killed, including seven British officials and many of their African carriers. Two British officers survived.
London's answer was the "Punitive Expedition". About 1,200 men under Admiral Sir Harry Rawson invaded on 9 February 1897 and took Benin City on 18 February. Towns and villages along the way were burned, and an unknown number of Edo people were killed. In the city the soldiers stripped the palace and the shrines. Then fire broke out and destroyed much of what was left. Oba Ovonramwen was captured, tried and exiled to Calabar, where he died in 1914. Benin was absorbed into the Niger Coast Protectorate.
The loot was treated as spoils of war. Part went straight to the British Museum. Much was sold at auction to cover the costs of the expedition, and dealers sold it on to museums in Germany, Austria, the USA and elsewhere. That is why "Benin Bronzes" ended up in more than a hundred museums worldwide.
The Asante kingdom of today's Ghana was famous for its gold: royal regalia, ceremonial swords, badges worn by the officials who "washed the soul" of the king, ornaments for caps and sandals. In February 1874, during the war the Asante call the Sagrenti War (after Sir Garnet Wolseley), British troops entered Kumasi, looted the palace of Asantehene Kofi Karikari and blew it up. In April 1874 the gold was auctioned in London. The South Kensington Museum, today's V&A, bought pieces at that sale, and the British Museum acquired its own share.
In 1896 the British came back. Asantehene Prempeh I was arrested and exiled, eventually to the Seychelles, and more royal objects were taken. Among them was the Asante Ewer, a fourteenth-century English bronze jug that had somehow reached the Asante court centuries earlier. Four years later, the British governor's demand for the Golden Stool itself sparked the War of the Golden Stool led by Yaa Asantewaa.
In 2024, after nearly half a century of talks, the British Museum and the V&A lent 32 Asante gold and silver objects to the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi for the silver jubilee of Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II. Among them are a sword of state, a gold peace pipe and soul-washers' badges. They arrived in April 2024 under a three-year agreement that can be renewed for another three. The Fowler Museum in Los Angeles went further and handed back ownership of seven objects. In December 2025 the British Museum's Asante Ewer was also reported to be heading to Kumasi on long-term loan.
Since 2021, restitution of the Benin Bronzes has gone from a fringe demand to normal museum practice in much of Europe and North America. A selection:
Not every returned object goes back physically. Some museums transfer ownership and then keep the pieces on loan, at Nigeria's request, while new museums and storage are built. That is a practical choice, not a trick.
The British Museum holds about 900 objects from the kingdom of Benin. Nigeria formally asked for their return in October 2021. The museum's answer is that the British Museum Act 1963 forbids the trustees from permanently disposing of objects in the collection, apart from narrow exceptions such as duplicates or damaged items. Changing that would need Parliament. The museum's director, Nicholas Cullinan, has said he prefers partnerships and long-term loans to restitution.
Critics answer that the law was written by Parliament and can be changed by Parliament. They also point out that the museum chose to accept these objects in the first place. Supporters of the museum argue that a universal museum lets millions of people from everywhere see world cultures side by side. That argument was not made to the people of Benin City in 1897. Since Cambridge's decision in 2026, Nigerian officials have openly said they expect a domino effect.
For the bigger picture of the museum itself, see our planned page British Museum: an honest guide.
Restitution has raised a question inside Nigeria too: who should hold the returned objects? In March 2023 a presidential decree recognised the Oba of Benin, Omo N'Oba Ewuare II, the great-great-grandson of the exiled Ovonramwen, as the owner and custodian of returned Benin objects. The decree surprised several European partners.
A new museum built in Benin City and designed by David Adjaye, first called the Edo Museum of West African Art, was meant to show returned Bronzes. After disputes with the palace it was renamed the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) and shifted to broader West African art. In November 2025 protesters linked to the palace disrupted its preview, the opening was postponed, and the Edo State governor moved to revoke the land title. The palace has its own plans for a Benin Royal Museum. These are Nigerian debates for Nigerians to settle. But anyone using them as an argument to keep the Bronzes in London should remember that British museums have their own disputes over ownership and control too.
A tip: read the labels. Over the past few years many museums have rewritten them to say plainly how objects were acquired. Where a label is vague about 1897 or 1874, that vagueness is a statement too.
Our tour partner offers guided museum tours in London, and tours in Nigeria and around Kumasi for those who want to see the other side. Entrance fees are included in the tour price where a tour visits paying sites. Tips are not included but are always welcome.
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