The Cambridge University is set to return the Benin bronze cockerel, a Nigerian artifact that was looted during a British raid in pre-independence Nigeria.
Nigeria’s National Commission Museum and Monuments will receive the Benin bronze cockerel which was given to Cambridge’s Jesus College by a father of a student in 1905, after it was first acquired in an 1897 expedition by British forces into the historic kingdom of Benin.
Cambridge University disclosed that delegates from Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments and from Benin would visit the Jesus College on October 27 for a complete handover process and celebration of the rightful return of the Bronze artefact.
The return of the Benin bronze to Nigeria comes as a momentous occasion for museums, galleries and other institutions across the UK to return artifacts looted during Britain’s colonial era to their nation of origin.
