* British soldiers plundered Benin Bronzes in 1897
* Looted castings are displayed in museums worldwide
* Nigeria's Edo state to build museum to house artefacts
* Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye to design museum
By Alexis Akwagyiram
LAGOS, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Nigeria expects to get more of its
plundered Benin Bronzes back from Western museums and collectors
as early as next year as global Black Lives Matter protests spur
repatriation campaigns, a senior official said.
Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo state whose capital is Benin
City, said discussions were underway about several returns that
would be a boost for a broader movement building across Africa
and beyond seeking colonial-era loot.
Plans had been drawn up to build a centre to store and study
the returned artefacts by the end of 2021, and a permanent
museum by 2025, Obaseki told Reuters.
"The whole Black Lives Matter movement has ... added some
urgency to the conversation," he said.
British soldiers seized thousands of metal castings and
sculptures during a raid on the then separate Kingdom of Benin
in 1897.
The "bronzes" - actually copper alloy relief sculptures,
many showing court figures - were auctioned off and then spread
among institutions from New Zealand to Germany and the United
States, with the biggest collection in London.
The British Museum has long resisted calls for the full
repatriation of its collection of bronzes - as well as of
Ethiopia's Magdala treasures and Greece's 'Elgin marbles' -
often citing legislation banning it from disposing of artefacts.
But Obaseki said worldwide anti-racism protests, which have
forced Western nations to re-examine their colonial pasts, had
helped advance negotiations on finding a compromise.
Several museums including the British Museum and the Museum
of Ethnology in Vienna have formed a Benin Dialogue Group to
discuss the sculptures and work on displaying them in a museum
in Benin City, some of them officially on loan.
"FOR AFRICANS FIRST"
The British Museum said discussions were ongoing, but did
not give details on timings.
"The question of the objects that will feature in the new
museum in Benin and how many will be determined through
discussion with our Nigerian colleagues," it said in a
statement.
A private collector returned one item in August and four
others had expressed interest in recent months in doing the same
as early as next year, Obaseki said.
Funds will be raised over the next two years to build the
three-storey Edo Museum of West African Art (EMOWAA), and work
on a research office to store the first returns would start in
March, he said.
It would be part of an estimated $100 million regeneration
scheme that would involve the excavation of the original walls
and moats of Benin City, once the main hub of the Kingdom of
Benin, which spanned much of what is now southern Nigeria from
medieval times, until the British arrived.
An independent trust has been set up to raise funds
including representatives of the National Commission for Museums
and Monuments and the royal palace of the Oba, or king, of
Benin.
More details will be announced on Friday, Obaseki said.
The new museum would encourage foreigners to come to Nigeria
to see the bronzes, widely recognised as among the masterpieces
of African art, he added.
It would try "to make the world understand that there was a
civilization in sub-Saharan Africa that compared with what was
going on in Europe 400 or 500 years ago."
Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye, who will be
overseeing the project, told Reuters it was "ridiculous" that
Nigerians currently had to travel to Europe to see artefacts
from their own culture.
"This museum is really for Africans first," he said.