THE UNIVERSITY of Aberdeen is to return a Benin bronze to Nigeria following a review that found the artefact was taken from the country in an “extremely immoral” manner.

The bronze is famous for depicting the Oba, or King of Benin, and was part of a haul of thousands of items that the British took in 1897 when their forces looted Benin city in south-eastern Nigeria.

In statement, the university have reassured that the item will be sent back “within weeks” after having ownership of it since 1957.

They said that the “punitive expedition” of 1897 was one of “the most notorious examples of the pillaging of cultural treasures associated with 19th-century European colonial expansion.”

Professor George Boyne, principal and vice-chancellor of the university, said the recent decision was in accordance Aberdeen’s “values as an international, inclusive university,” adding that keeping the sacred item would have been wrong because it was “acquired in such reprehensible circumstances.”

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, agreed that the move was right. “Other holders of Nigerian antiquity ought to emulate this to bring fairness to the burning issue of repatriation,” he added.

The news follows reports that Germany had also confirmed it was in negotiating stages to repatriate 440 bronzes that remain in its collections in the Ethnological Museum in Berlin in exchange for training of Nigerian museum staff and assisting with the development of a new museum in Benin.

In response to the move, German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said the issue of repatriations was part of an “honest engagement with colonial history” and that it was “a question of justice.”