By Tajudeen Sowole
Aside the Nok statuettes
returned to Nigeria by the French Embasy in Abuja yesterday, another set of
artefacts of Nigerian origin - also illegally exported to France – will
be presented very soon, French Ambassador, Jacques Champagne De Labriolle has
disclosed.
De Labriolle stated this much during the presentation of the Nok terracotta pieces seized in France in 2010. The artefacts were collected on behalf of Nigeria by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Nationall Orientation at Reiz Hotel, Abuja.
"Let me announce that we will meet again in a few weeks from now, when we will return another statuette, which was seized by the French Customs in another development unrelated to the first one. This statuette is not a Nok terracotta statuette,' but a soapstone statuette of Esie origin," De Labriolle stated:
Earlier, he argued that the return was "made in accordance with international law, and within the framework of a French policy aiming at fighting illegal imports, and especially illegal imports of cultural goods."
DG NCMM Mallam Yusuf Abdallah Usman,Minister of Tourism and Culture High Chief Edem Duke,French Ambassador Jacques Champagne De Labriolle during the return of the seized works. |
It was also explained that the statuettes were seized in France, by the
French customs near Paris, in August 2010.
The return was coming about six months after another set of Nok terracotta pieces of Nigerian origin were intercepted by the Home Security Investigation (HSI) of U.S. Although the seized works in U.S. were yet to be returned to Nigeria, it is believed that "technically, we are in repossession since the works are already in custody of Nigeria Consulate in U.S"
The Honourable Minister High Chief Edem Duke
The return was coming about six months after another set of Nok terracotta pieces of Nigerian origin were intercepted by the Home Security Investigation (HSI) of U.S. Although the seized works in U.S. were yet to be returned to Nigeria, it is believed that "technically, we are in repossession since the works are already in custody of Nigeria Consulate in U.S"
The Honourable Minister High Chief Edem Duke
traced
the collaboration between Nigeria and France to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on
the prohibition of illicit trade in Cultural property and the 1995 UNIDROIT
Convention on stolen and illegally exported cultural objects.
"Nigeria and France have collaborated under the 1970 UNESCO
Convention on the prohibition of illicit trade in Cultural property and the
1995 UNIDROIT Convention on stolen and illegally exported cultural objects over
the years," Duke stated. He argued "that the return of these Nok
pieces is yet another attestation to the collaboration between Nigeria and
France in Cultural and Heritage matters spanning over several decades."
The Director-General of
National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), Mallam Yusuf Abdallah
Usman traced the history of most of Nigerian artefcats illegally acquired
abroad.
"There
were two waves of collection of Nigerian Artifacts. The first wave was
during colonial period first by invading forces of imperial Britain such as the
Benin Punitive Expedition of 1897 and later by western anthropologists who
carried out field work in various parts of the country. The second wave
of collection was in the 1960s and 1970s when the civil war provoked large exodus
of our artefacts through our borders with neighbouring countries."
Usman described the current returned artefacts as the "third
wave" of looted objects, "The flight was from Togo. In all
likelihood therefore these artifacts left this country in recent times.
This
brings us to the 3rd wave of exodus of Nigeria artifacts which is
the illegal excavation and looting of heritage, archaeological sites and
museums by unscrupulous Nigerians and their foreign collaborators."
On the current effort of the NCMM to stop further illegal
movement of Nigerian artefacts, Usman disclosed that "at the onset of the
present management of the NCMM under my humble leadership, the issue of looting
of archaeological sites by illegal diggers reduced due to the use of a multi-pronged
approach. Within the last three years the Commission has embarked on
several sensitization programme involving law enforcement agencies, media,
local communities and traditional rulers at Abuja and Kaduna and also in the
rural areas especially at Nok and Janjala."
Recalling
the seizure three years ago, De Labriolle
said "they were found in the personal
luggage of a traveller coming back from Africa. It was quickly established that
these art works had been illegally taken away from Nigerian territory.
"At the time of the seizure, nobody knew where the
statuettes exactly came from. They were later analysed by several French
experts, coming from a famous French museum (Musee du Quai Branly),
from the French Museums Directorate of the Ministry of Culture, and from
the Research and Restoration Laboratory of the also famous Louvre
Museum. These experts were eventually able to determine their origin.
The artefacts are estimated to be as old as between 1400 BC
and 700 BC or 3000 years old.
De Labriolle noted that under the French policy against illegal importation of artefacts, "the French Customs and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs have worked together so that the seized items be returned to Nigeria, as the country of origin of the seized goods." this he stressed, was aimed at reinforcing the cooperation with the country of origin in the common fight against trafficking."