Nigeria operates over 52 museums under the leadership of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments. The NCMM also works to achieve the return of plundered cultural artifacts. During the British colonial era in the 1940s, there was already an Antiquities Service, and the first national museum was founded in Jos in 1952, the same year as the Museum Rietberg. With the 1953 Antiquities Act there came the first successful export ban. Benin City has been home to the National Museum since 1973. Now two more museums are planned: the Benin Royal Museum and the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA).
Film by Omoregie Osakpolor; Nigeria; 2024
Exhibition „In Dialogue with Benin. Art, Colonialism and Restitution“
The exhibition is part of the Benin Initiative Switzerland
More information: Museum Rietberg
