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Berlin (dpa) - German museums are to return the first art treasures of the Benin bronzes, which are considered looted goods, to Nigeria next year.
According to dpa information from participant circles, a group of museum experts and politicians in an online connection with Berlin agreed on this on Thursday.
A corresponding timetable should be developed by this summer.
At the invitation of Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters (CDU), the group discussed the further handling of Benin bronzes, valuable art treasures from the royal palace of the then Kingdom of Benin, in German holdings.
The aim was to find a common German position on the Nigerian side.
Before the meeting, Baden-Württemberg's Art Minister Theresia Bauer had put additional pressure on with a timed timetable.
Benin bronzes can be found in numerous German museums.
According to previous plans, such art treasures will also be exhibited in the Berlin Humboldt Forum.
The Ethnological Museum has around 530 historical objects from the Kingdom of Benin, including around 440 bronzes.
Most of the objects came from the British looting in 1897.
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The management of the German museums of the Benin Dialogue Group negotiated with Grütters with the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (Berlin), the Linden Museum Stuttgart, the Museum am Rothenbaum Hamburg, the Dresden State Art Collections and the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne.
In addition to the Federal Foreign Office, the respective political levels responsible for the museums were also present, as well as the federal-state working group on dealing with collections from colonial contexts and the Secretary General of the cultural foundation of the federal states as the head of the contact point for collections from colonial contexts in Germany.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210429-99-407628 / 4