Will the British Museum Return Contested Artifacts?

London’s British Museum houses some of the world’s most celebrated artifacts—including the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin marbles and the Benin bronzes. But many of these treasures were acquired during an era of empire and conquest, and countries from Greece to Nigeria have been calling for their return.

During the 19th century, colonial European powers and their explorers, soldiers, missionaries and collectors acquired vast numbers of cultural objects under conditions that would not meet today’s ethical standards. Some artifacts were seized during military campaigns, others were removed from archaeological sites without permission, under the guise of being preserved or "saved." Still others were purchased from local officials or intermediaries who may not have had the authority—or freedom—to sell them. Even items obtained through “official” transactions often reflected deep imbalances of power, as colonial authorities and Western museums sought to fill their collections with evidence of the civilizations they ruled.

In 1897, for example, British troops stole some 4,000 sculptures after invading the Kingdom of Benin, now southwestern Nigeria. (They are broadly referred to as "bronzes," but were actually crafted from a variety of materials, including brass, ivory, wood and coral.) More than a century later, surviving works are on display at museums in the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria and the United States—but not in Nigeria, their country of origin. The 2018 film Black Panther nodded to this issue during a heist scene set in the fictional “Museum of Great Britain” where characters reclaimed artifacts stolen from the fictional African country of Wakanda (also fictional).

The British Museum, which holds more than 900 Benin sculptures, has faced decades of requests, starting in the 1930s, from the Kingdom of Benin (now in Nigeria) to return the so-called Benin bronzes. In late 2018, the museum announced a loan arrangement under which some bronzes would go to Nigeria for display in what was then the planned new state museum. However, the British Museum maintained the objects were just a loan, remaining under its trusteeship and subject to eventual return. It says the British Museum Act 1963 legally restricts its trustees from disposing of any objects in the collection, preventing it from ever permanently handing over such items.

Since 2021, museums in France, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands and Scotland have all repatriated Benin bronzes. In 2023, Nigerian government officials announced the sculptures would be directed not to the newly planned state museum, but to the Oba (king) of Benin, a descendant of the royal family that once owned the bronzes, whose palace was originally looted.

The bronzes are among many high-profile objects of cultural patrimony at the British Museum being flagged for return. Egypt wants its Rosetta Stone back, and Easter Island has asked the museum to return its megalithic Moai head statue. Even Greece, a fellow member of the European Union, wants the museum to return some Parthenon marbles often called the “Elgin marbles” after the Scottish nobleman who took them. In December 2018, a protest theater group called “BP Or Not BP?” organized a “Stolen Goods Tour” at the British Museum, highlighting those and other artifacts, including the Gweagal shield, which the British stole from Aboriginal Australians in the late 18th century. Echoing its stand on the Benin bronzes, the British Museum refused to repatriate the Gweagal shield to Australia for a 2016 museum exhibit. Instead, it loaned the shield and reclaimed it afterward.

The British Museum has repeatedly said it has no plans to repatriate stolen artifacts, citing the British Museum Act and asserting that “the collections have to be preserved as whole.” Pressure to return them, however, will likely continue.