Museum de Fundatie returns Benin bronze plaque to Oba Ewuare II

Lead and the gap between signature and shipment

Ownership moved first. Beatrice von Bormann, director of Museum de Fundatie, and Babatunde Adebiyi of Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments signed the transfer documents on 10 November 2025. The bronze reached the royal palace in Benin City on 20 October 2026, where von Bormann handed it to Oba Ewuare II during the tenth anniversary of his coronation. Nigerian officials, traditional leaders and international representatives attended.

Eleven months separate the signature from the handover. That gap is the part of restitution that rarely makes the announcement: a transfer of title changes who owns an object, not where it sits or whether a visitor can see it. The plaque spent 89 years in a Dutch museum collection before the ceremony. It was shown on loan in Zwolle from 21 February to 7 June 2026 in the exhibition Back to Benin: New Art, Ancient Heritage.

The palace wants that gap closed. Oba Ewuare II said arrangements were concluded to return about 40 Benin artefacts from a museum in Sweden, with legal transfer and physical handover to run together rather than in separate stages, TheNigeriaLawyer reported. Sweden's ambassador to Nigeria said in May 2024 that Sweden would return 39.

The object and its route to Zwolle

The plaque is known in Edo as Ama O Ghe Ehen and shows a mudfish, or lungfish, a creature tied to rebirth in Edo culture. Plaques of this kind once lined the walls of the Oba's palace, where they carried the kingdom's history and beliefs.

Its modern paper trail starts with dealers. Museum founder Dirk Hannema bought the work from Amsterdam art dealer Carel van Lier in 1937, and it had earlier belonged to the French dealer Charles Ratton. Provenance research at the museum, with renewed attention from 2023, established the object's origin in Benin City and strengthened the conclusion that it was most likely taken during the British assault of 1897. The museum describes the plaque as very likely looted and has not presented that link as established certainty.

The scale sits in two numbers. The attack came in 1897 and the handover in 2026, 129 years apart. The museum bought the plaque in 1937 and transferred ownership in November 2025, 88 years later.

How the Dutch plaque compares with other returns

One plaque is small next to the Dutch state's earlier handover. The Netherlands handed over 119 Benin Bronzes on 21 June 2025, describing the restitution as unconditional and recognising the works as loot from the 1897 attack. Switzerland returned 18 objects from museums in Zurich and Geneva at a ceremony at the National Museum in Lagos, Vanguard reported in June 2026. The ceremony also covered five other objects seized in Swiss criminal proceedings: a bronze bracelet and four Ikom monoliths.

The Swiss case rested on provenance research carried out under the Benin Initiative Switzerland, according to a joint release from the museums involved. France returned 26 treasures in 2021; an exhibition of the collection drew roughly 230,000 visitors in 2022.

Who holds the bronzes once they are home

The Dutch plaque went to a traditional ruler, not to a national museum. That choice lands in a live argument. A 2023 presidential declaration vested ownership and custodianship of returned Benin artefacts in the Oba of Benin, while a 2025 Reuters account details the palace's approval for the National Commission for Museums and Monuments to retrieve, conserve, display and pursue the return of the works. Nigerian government authorities and the Benin Kingdom's traditional rulers have at times been at loggerheads over who should have possession of returned bronzes, AFP reported. Protests delayed the opening of the Museum of West African Art in Benin City last year; the museum had been expected to display some returned bronzes, but those plans were shelved as authority consolidated around the Oba.

The National Commission for Museums and Monuments plans a dedicated gallery for recently returned Benin objects, including the Swiss and Dutch restitutions and works expected from Cambridge.

Where the rest of the returns are going

The Republic of Benin, Nigeria's neighbour, shows how slow the next step can be. Travel Noire reported that 27 returned royal treasures at the Palais de la Marina in Cotonou have spent much of their homecoming in reserve. They include carved palace doors, royal statues, thrones and the three-legged kataklè stool Finland returned in May 2025. The Republic of Benin's government has named MURAD, the Museum of the Kings and Amazons of Danhomè in Abomey, as the eventual destination for the 26 works France returned.

Le Monde reported that the stool would join those 26 treasures at the presidential palace. Several of Nigeria's recent restitutions have entered through the National Museum in Lagos before moving on to Benin City.