“Our stated goal is substantial returns of objects from the historic kingdom of Benin as early as 2022,” said president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation Hermann Parzinger, according to the foundation.

“Our visit was another milestone on the way there,” he said of the talks in Nigeria about how to deal with the Benin Bronzes.

In April, he spent five days in Nigeria for talks, together with Barbara Plankensteiner, director of the Hamburg Museum am Rothenbaum and co-spokesperson of the Benin Dialogue Group, and Andreas Goergen, head of the cultural department at the German Foreign Ministry.

Parzinger said they had held “good talks” with representatives of the Nigerian government, the state of Edo and the Oba king of the Kingdom of Benin in Benin City.

They also talked about plans to establish the Edo State Museum of West African Art (EMOWAA) in Benin City, where Benin artworks are to be displayed in the future.

Bronzes from the royal palace of the then kingdom of Benin are found in many German museums and there were also plans to show such works in Berlin’s new Humboldt Forum.

Most of the artefacts, known as the Benin Bronzes, were looted by British forces during a military expedition to the kingdom, in what is now Nigeria, in 1897.

The foundation’s board is next due to meet on June 29. Talks with contacts in Nigeria are due to continue in Berlin in the summer.