When the bronzes came home
As fears about the future of bronze casting grew in Igun, the artefacts that made the street famous were beginning to return home.
One of the unsung heroes behind that process is Bankole Sodipo, a professor of law at Babcock University in southwest Nigeria. On the eve of the pandemic, while on a sabbatical in the United Kingdom, Sodipo learned that the University of Aberdeen was eager to return artefacts in its custody.
He helped create the conditions to ease and accelerate the return process, mediating among stakeholders and helping navigate the legal and diplomatic questions surrounding repatriation.
The news of his progress soon reached the University of Cambridge, where discussions about returning Benin artefacts had stalled. Sodipo became involved in efforts to bridge differences among stakeholders whose competing views threatened to derail the process.
In October 2021, both returns were completed. Among the repatriated works were an Ọba’s head from Aberdeen and a bronze cockerel from Cambridge.
“It was a signal to the world,” says Sodipo. “I was highly elated. I was very excited to have been approached for this and to have cracked it.”
Then came the restitution rush.
In 2022, Nigeria and Germany signed an agreement covering the return of 1,130 stolen Benin Bronzes. The Netherlands returned 119 artefacts in June 2025. More recently, Cambridge transferred legal ownership of 116 looted Benin artefacts to Nigerian authorities.
With these returns rose the question of custody. Who is the rightful custodian of the arts? Where should they be housed? And, above all, what would be the name and identity of the museum?
The questions stirred much controversy and public debate. Former governor Godwin Obaseki supported plans to house returned objects in a new museum, while Ọba (King) Ewuare II, the royal king of the Benin Kingdom, argued that the artefacts had originally been taken from the royal palace during the reign of Ọba Ovonramwen, from whom he descended.
The oba warned against what he described as “attempts to divert the destination or the right of custody of the artefacts”, insisting that the works belonged to the royal palace from which they were taken during the 1897 invasion.
The dispute became one of the defining debates of the restitution era. It also complicated plans for displaying returned works. The original proposal to house repatriated artefacts in the now-completed Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) stalled.
Although then-President Muhammadu Buhari signed a 2023 decree recognising the oba as the custodian of the returned artefacts, tensions resurfaced during a preview event for the museum in late 2025. The police calmed the chaos and helped evacuate ambassadors, donors and other guests. Wase Aguele-Konu, head of communications & media relations, says the museum currently holds no Benin Bronzes in its collections.
For several Igun bronze casters, including the outspoken Ogbevoen Osaboro, resolving the custody debate is a question of history and heritage. Growing up, Osaboro learned – through oral histories – that ancient bronzes were cast at the command of the oba for the purposes of the royal court.
Many historians trace the tradition to the beginning of the 15th century. And until recently, says Osazee, bronze works were not primarily commercial objects. They recorded major events, preserved history, and reflected spiritual and political life in the kingdom.
“The jobs were done to preserve our culture and tell the stories of major events in the kingdom. Those days, there were no photographs,” Osazee, adorned in patterned ankara fabric, told Al Jazeera. “Some of those ancient arts were kept in the shrines and worshipped. People prayed to them.”