Cambridge University agreed to return 116 Benin Bronzes stolen by British troops during their colonization of Nigeria. But it reportedly said it will keep 17 others in one of its museums on “loan,” along with about 400 other items from the Kingdom of Benin. In 1897, British troops stole thousands of plaques and sculptures known as the Benin Bronzes, as well as other artifacts, when they sacked the Kingdom of Benin, which is in present-day Nigeria. They have since been scattered across museums and private collections in the West. The British Museum holds the largest collection of Benin Bronzes and has refused to return them. In 2024, archivists found that Cambridge’s collection includes an estimated 350,000 artifacts and documents taken from Africa during colonization, including over 6,000 human remains mostly from Egypt and Sudan. #Nigeria #Artifacts #Stolen #British #Colonization