Church Of England Set To Return Benin Bronze Statues

The Church of England has made a promise to return two Benin Bronzes to Nigeria amid the increasing row over the restoration of African treasures.

According to the Evening Standard, Lambeth Palace said it was presently engaged in "discussions" over the return of the artworks which were presented as gifts to the then Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie nearly four decades ago.

The bronze art pieces

A Lambeth spokesperson stated: "We have recently been contacted by the Digital Benin project at the MARKK (Hamburg) who enquired about our collection of gifts at Lambeth Palace and if we had received any Benin Kingdom objects as gifts over the years.

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"In response, we have confirmed to the Digital Benin project that we have two bronze busts given to us by the Benin Kingdom in 1982. These were gifted to Archbishop Robert Runcie by His Excellency Chief (Prof.) Ambrose F. Alli and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

"We have offered for the two busts to be included in the Digital Benin project and eventually returned to our friends in Edo, Nigeria where they may remain.

"We are currently in discussions with the EMOWAA via the Legacy Restoration Trust to arrange this." 

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The bronze pieces are most likely to end up at the planned Edo Museum of West Africa Art (EMOWAA) being built in the city of Benin specifically to display the treasures of the African Kingdom in contemporary Nigeria.

The move comes following growing pressure on institutions to return looted works of art with the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill being one of the latest to take steps to hand back art exhibits.