RECOVERING NIGERIA'S TERRACOTTA - Afrikanet.info

This presentation recounted the controversy over the three illegally exported
Nok and Sokoto objects originating from Nigeria which landed in an exhibition
at the Louvre organized in anticipation of the new Quai Branly Museum.
Despite the fact that these objects were on the Red List posted on ICOM’s
website, the French government negotiated their acquisition from a Belgian art
dealer with the proviso that an agreement from the Nigerian government would
be required before the actual purchase. President Chirac is reported to have
personally sought and obtained the approval for the purchase of the Noks from
President Obasanjo of Nigeria despite the strong opposition of the top echelon
of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments on the grounds
that the objects were illegally exported from Nigeria and therefore remained the
legal cultural property of Nigeria. In the end a wholly unsatisfactory and
unrighteous arrangement was entered into between Nigeria and France which
consisted of France’s recognition of Nigeria’s ownership of the three Nok and
Sokoto objects deposited with the Musée du Quai Branly, to be exhibited with
the museum’s permanent collection for the exceptionally long period of twentyfive
years (renewable).
UNESCO Regional Workshop on the Fight against Illicit Trafficking of Cultural
Property, Cape Town, South Africa 27-30 September 2004
http://portal.unesco.org
5. Colin Renfrew, a leading British archaeologist, has this to say on the role of
Western museums in the illicit trade in artefacts:
“The world's archaeological resource, which through the practice of
archaeology is our principal source of knowledge about the early human past, is
being destroyed at a formidable and increasing rate. It is destroyed by looters in
order to serve the lucrative market in illicit artefacts through which private
collectors and alas, some of the major museums of the world, fulfil their desire
to accumulate antiquities. Such unprovenanced antiquities, ripped from their
archaeological context without record (and without any hope of publication),
can tell us little that is new. The opportunity is thereby lost for them to add to
our understanding of the past history and prehistory of the regions from which
they come, or to our perception of the early development of human society.”
Colin Renfrew, Loot, Legitimacy and Ownership: The Ethical Crisis in
Archaeology, Duckworth, London, 2006, p.9.
6. National Commission For Museums and Monuments Act, Chapter 242, Laws
of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 http://www.nigeria-law
7. Folarin Shyllon, “Museums and Universal Heritage: Right of Return and
Right of Access”, text of a Lecture delivered to mark the International Museum
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