anyone who wants to see the great benin bronzes will have to go to nigeria.nt in the development if you do not give it back you also help this country to create a museum and create curators. the status of art stolen during european empires as part of a new ongoing process of decolonisation. it does notjust happened with a declaration, it goes on for decades and these are part of it all. the main difficulty in dealing with colonial art as it is worth millions and nobody likes to give up assets that are worth millions. another important aspect is that gallery owners in the west believe that works are displayed in museums such as the louvre and will be seen by far more people and be safer than as opposed to be displayed and relatively isolated places in africa. louvre has opened up in abu dhabi and is going to build even more tourism, the rich get richer. it is the story of the gulf states. i do not think you can come up with a single view about returning art because every set of objects and state is different. that was the criticism that the director of the v&a

you would have to be richer to go to nigeria to see the benin bronzes than to europe.ou see why do you have to go to the louvre? why can't you decide your great artworks belongs to the world, that this is no longer a kind of parochial concern and just your national interest? these constitute a world of comparative culture and if you destroy the idea of the comparative historical museum there will be no scope any longer for cultures existing side by side. will be no scope any longer for cultures existing side by sidem belongs to the rich world. you may only rich people go to museums? yes and it is very important that the people of nigeria can see it and that this art is set back, it is not oui’s. that this art is set back, it is not ours. a business loan that sometimes never ends. on a more diplomatic approach that macron took when he pledged to return some of the works back to africa but you notice the only makes this kind of declaration during his trips to africa. do you wa nt during his trips to africa. do you want africa to disappear from the world cultural stage? t

talking about what are called the binion bronzes now that's a group of sculptures and metal plaques that decorated once upon a time the royal palace of the kingdom of benin in what is now modern day nigeria and back in eighty ninety seven british soldiers brought most of them as looted art to europe and many ended up in the british museum and the rest were purchased by other museums. there are notable collections in vienna and berlin today the call by european artists and politicians to return these objects has been growing louder and of course similar sentiment is building in nigeria so you know there are several facets to this argument as we heard earlier in the program many museum professionals are basically arguing that our concept of of the big museums that we have here in europe that they're very international that there's a universal principle operating there that they are making these works accessible to everyone but as you know. there are a number of people in africa like the art collector we heard from earlier who have a problem with that as a very. kind of you. for instance is the owner of nigeria's largest private gallery and she had this ver