Stolen during the colonial era, dozens of Benin bronzes that once adorned the Kingdom of Benin’s royal palace will be put on display for the last time in Berlin from Saturday before being returned to Nigeria.

The famous African works of art and their turbulent path to the exhibition in the Humboldt Museum speak of Germany’s gradual coming to terms with the colonial era and the injustices of the past.

The move to return some bronzes is the latest in a series of steps Germany has taken to take responsibility for colonial-era crimes, including officially recognizing a genocide committed by Germany in Namibia in May 2021.

Items on display include a pair of thrones and a commemorative bust of the monarch that once adorned the walls of the royal palace in the city of Benin, modern-day Nigeria.

Two rooms of the extensive museum are dedicated to the art and history of the Kingdom of Benin, an exhibition that, according to the German side, is being realized “in close cooperation with partners in Nigeria”.

The removal of the treasures is explained in the gallery, and educational workshops are also planned around the exhibition.

Thousands of Benin bronzes, metal plaques and sculptures are now scattered in European museums after being looted by the British in the late 19th century.

The recognition of colonial injustice and the subsequent return of the objects “will continue to define our work in the future,” Hermann Parzinger, president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which oversees state museums in the German capital, said in a statement.

“Just like the Netherlands and Belgium, Germany has established a museum policy that has a clear view of the colonial past,” French historian Pascal Blanchard, a specialist in the era, told AFP.

The Africa Museum in Tervuren near Brussels, Belgium, which reopened at the end of 2018, says it takes a “critical look” at the past and the history of the Congo, owned by Belgian King Leopold II as his private property in the 19th century.

Likewise, the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam takes a long look at the colonial past of the Netherlands.

Unlike some countries like France, Germany lost its empire after its defeat in World War I and as such does not have a significant community of people repatriated from Africa.

“It’s not political, which makes it easier to come to terms with the past,” Blanchard said.

Nonetheless, Germany has come under criticism in recent years for increasing public confrontation with racism over the provenance of many objects in its museums.

The outrage grew louder with the opening in December 2020 of the first part of the new Humboldt Museum, housed in a partially rebuilt Prussian palace.

The iconic site – the former residence of the Hohenzollern dynasty who oversaw Germany’s colonial adventures – was to display objects from the period.

The Ethnological Museum Berlin currently houses 530 objects originating from the Kingdom of Benin, including around 440 bronzes, and is considered the largest collection behind the British Museum in London.

According to Berlin museum director Lars-Christian Koch, some of the objects will soon be returned, another third will be kept on loan and the rest, not on display, will be examined by researchers.

Germany isn’t the only country starting to return stolen artifacts. In November 2021, France returned 26 artifacts from the Abomey Royal Treasures to the country of Benin alongside Nigeria.

Pressure is also mounting on the British Museum, which owns around 700 bronzes. It has long argued that its vast trove of foreign artifacts, such as the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, are best housed there.

According to historian Benedicte Savoy, the return of the objects was a long time coming.

“Return requests date back to independence in the 1960s. They have been silenced, rejected, forgotten for years,” she told AFP.

Nigeria plans to build a museum in Benin City in the south of the country to bring the works together when they return.