NIGERIA’s President raided his country’s museum to bring a priceless national treasure as a present for the Queen on a state visit to London in 1973, according to documents just released.
Newly declassified archival material reveals how the Foreign and Commonwealth Office knew in 1974 that a 16th-century Benin bronze was expropriated treasure.
Removed from the National Museum in Lagos, it was a diplomatic gift from General Yakubu Gowon, the Nigerian President, even though a licence for such an important treasure would never have been granted under Nigeria’s export regulations.
The revelation comes as Nigeria is reiterating calls for the British Museum to return the Benin Bronzes, which were found in 1897 when British Forces entered Benin City in southwest Nigeria.
About 700 examples are in the British Museum, including decorative plaques that once adorned the pillars of a palace.
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By the end of the 19th century they had been abandoned in a storehouse. Although Nigerians concede that they might not have survived if they had remained at their original site, they say that the bronzes belong in Nigeria.
Confirmation that Britain knew that the Queen’s bronze was authentic comes in a file from the Foreign Office at the National Archives, according to this month’s Art Newspaper.
A letter dated December 11, 1974, from Michael Glaze, a specialist on West African artefacts, reads: “The bronze which (President) Gowon gave to the Queen on his (1973) state visit was a 16th-century piece worth up to £30,000.
“It was in the Lagos Museum up to a few days before Gowon left for the UK when, realising he had to come bearing a suitable gift, he sent to the museum and said, ‘I’ll have that one.’ ”
Writing to the UK High Commission in Lagos, Mr Glaze continued: “I do not know if that makes you think that the Queen ought to reciprocate by giving him the leopards.”
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He was referring to a Foreign Office proposal for the Queen to give the Nigerian President two ivory leopards acquired by Queen Victoria.
The Lagos Benin bronze remains in the Royal Collection, on public display at Windsor Castle. A spokesman for the Nigerian Embassy in London said: “We have no comment.”
CONFLICTS AND SPOILS