The artifacts, known as the Benin Bronzes and mostly housed in a museum in Leiden, were looted in the late 19th century by British soldiers from what is now Nigeria.

It is the latest example of a country announcing that it will repatriate a group of these objects, which were looted by the British as part of a punitive expedition in 1897

The Netherlands has agreed to return 119 Benin bronze statues to Nigeria, the Dutch embassy in Abuja announced this week. It becomes the first European nation to do so after Germany. The majority of these 19th-century African sculptures,

The Netherlands says it will return more than 100 artifacts looted from the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now southern Nigeria, more than a century ago. The Benin Bronzes, plaques and sculptures of metal and ivory that decorated the kingdom's royal palace,

In recent years, about 1,100 objects from German, Scottish, British, and French museums have been returned amid pressure over colonial-era acquisitions.

The European country made this known in a statement by its embassy in Abuja on Wednesday, February 19, 2025. The valuable artefacts were looted during the British invasion and ended up in a museum in the Netherlands,