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Berlin / Hamburg (dpa) - The head of the Benin Dialogue Group, Barbara Plankensteiner, has warned against hasty steps in the heated restitution debate.
"It makes no sense - even with the Nigerian partners - to force things now that put them under pressure," said the director of the Hamburg Museum am Rothenbaum of the German press agency in Berlin.
Restitutions are complex processes.
"That doesn't mean just packing objects in a box and sending them back."
Recently there has been increasing discussion about returning art stolen during colonialism.
This is also the case with the Benin bronzes, which can be found in numerous German museums.
They are to play a central role in the Berlin Humboldt Forum.
Most of the objects came from the British looting in 1897. The Benin Dialogue Group brings together museums from Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden with Nigerian partners and representatives of the Benin royal court.
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Plankensteiner sees a development in the return debate.
"You cannot equate the conditions of the 70s and 80s with today's."
The situation has developed politically.
“When we founded the Benin Dialog Group ten years ago, hardly any politician was interested in the subject.
With restitutions it was always said that there was no legal basis for it. "
Whether restitution or loan for the Edo Museum of West African Arts planned in Benin City is a matter of negotiation for the cultural and social anthropologist.
"There are all possible ways of thinking."
It is important for everyone involved to continue to represent this art in the world.
"The point is to clarify what is going back to Nigeria and in what form, and which plants can possibly remain here."
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210406-99-95863 / 2
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Museum am Rothenbaum on colonial heritage
Humboldt Forum
Statement Benin Dialogue Group
SPK Board of Trustees for Benin Bronzes