The dispute over the restitution of artefacts removed as spoils of war in the 1897 British punitive expedition against the Kingdom of Benin, and now scattered across collections in Europe and the United States, is growing with the public letter from an organization acting on behalf of the descendants of West African slaves acts, an interesting twist.

The reason for this is the decision by the Horniman Museum in London and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge to follow the German example and transfer ownership of the Benin objects from their holdings to the Nigerian state.

Under UK law, the decisions require the approval of the Charity Commission, which regulates non-profit organisations.

She is therefore the addressee of the New York-based Restitution Study Group's call for the planned repatriation to be rejected because it would only enrich those whose ancestors in the Kingdom of Benin made money from the transatlantic trade in enslaved people.

The non-profit association, which aims to oblige companies involved in the slave trade to pay compensation, criticizes the lack of reporting on the origin of the Benin bronzes, which were largely made from the melted metal of the manillas used in the slave trade as exchange currency.

On the other hand, she complains

The British punitive expedition ended the slave trade

The Restitution Study Group regards the Benin bronzes as the co-ownership and legacy of the descendants of the enslaved, who paid for these works of art with their lives.

Those museums that now sought to reward the slave trader's heirs should instead serve as custodians of that legacy so that "our children and the world may see these treasures and learn of the origins of the slave trade."

The letter was published by the British interest group History Reclaimed, in which numerous renowned historians are trying to counteract the distortions of history in the so-called culture war.

She may find satisfaction in the group's claim that the controversial 1897 punitive expedition "ended the sale and sacrifice of the enslaved people" who had suffered three hundred years under the Benin Empire.

The letter should also give food for thought to those who are restoring cultural objects, amid ongoing arguments over whether they should be returned to the Nigerian state, the Oba of Benin, the Edo State provincial government, or the intermediary Legacy Restoration Trust.

Not to mention the claims of Nigerians living in the diaspora.