By MacDonald DzirutweLAGOS (Reuters) – A British university has postponed the return of more than 100 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria after a presidential decree named a royal ruler as the owner and custodian of all returned artefacts, the head of museums and monuments said on Wednesday. Nigeria is on a quest to get thousands of intricate bronze sculptures and castings…

Paris (dpa) – Pablo Picasso’s painting “Dora and the Minotaur” dates back to the year 1935. It shows the mythical creature with its human body but the head of a steer sexually assaulting a woman. In Greek mythology, the monster eats children, while with the painter it is assaulting Dora Maar, who was Picasso’s lover and muse at the time.  Today, in the…

Greece insisted Monday that Britain return for good the Parthenon Marbles that have been in British possession for two centuries, adding negotiations about their fate were “not easy.” The ancient sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, were taken from the Parthenon temple at the Acropolis in Athens in the early 19th century by British diplomat Thomas Bruce, the earl…

The Greek Ministry of Culture has rejected proposed solutions whereby friezes from the Parthenon temple could come to Athens on permanent loan from the British Museum in London.  The frieze pieces on display in London do not belong to the museum there, the ministry said late Thursday: “They are the product of theft.”  Earlier, British media had reported progress in…

Egypt announced Monday the recovery of a sarcophagus lid dating back nearly 2,700 years that it said had been smuggled out and put on display at a museum in the United States. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry announced the recovery of the artefact, known as the “Green Sarcophagus”, during a televised press conference Monday. He said it had been surreptitiously…

Australians will decide next year if the country’s constitution will be changed to give an institutional voice to the long-suffering Indigenous population, the government said on Wednesday. The proposed “Voice to Parliament” aims to give Indigenous Australians a greater say in national policy-making, as they battle poorer health, lower incomes and higher barriers to education. Indigenous Australians are not currently…

Germany’s decision to return its collection of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria could provide a template for dealing with other cultural restitution claims, the head of the foundation that controls Berlin’s state museums said on Sunday. “Where there is a clear context of illegality, the procedure used with the Benin Bronzes in transferring ownership rights is an important and correct step,”…

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday officially apologised for 250 years of the Netherlands’ involvement in slavery, calling it a “crime against humanity”. The apology comes almost 150 years after the end of slavery in the European country’s overseas colonies, which included Suriname in South America, Indonesia in the east and Caribbean islands such as Curacao and Aruba. In…