The Brutish Museums, the Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence, and Cultural Restitution

Nigeria had been trying to reclaim the Bronzes since the 1930s. They began asking more insistently after gaining independence from Britain in 1960. The George Floyd protests of 2020 jolted the group into hyperactivity. It might seem strange that the murder of a black man by a white police officer in America would trigger a global sentiment to return art looted from Nigeria some 130 years earlier. Or maybe not.