France Returns Smuggled Nok Terracotta To Nigeria

OFFICIAL HANDING OVER - FROM LEFT: FRENCH AMBASSADOR, MR JACQUES CHAMPAGNE DE LABRIOLLE; MINISTER OF TOURISM, CULTURE AND NATIONAL ORIENTATION, CHIEF EDEM DUKE; DIRECTOR-GENERAL, NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR MUSEUMS AND MONUMENTS, ALHAJI YUSUF USMAN; DIRECTOR-GENERAL, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM, DR MUNZALI DANTATA AND WAKILIN KPOP HAM, MR ELISHA YERO, AT THE OFFICIAL HANDING OVER OF 5 AFRICAN TERRACOTTA SCULTURES OF NOK ORIGIN
OFFICIAL HANDING OVER – FROM LEFT: FRENCH AMBASSADOR, MR JACQUES CHAMPAGNE DE LABRIOLLE; MINISTER OF TOURISM, CULTURE AND NATIONAL ORIENTATION, CHIEF EDEM DUKE.

Five terracotta sculptures smuggled out of the country in 2010 by a French national, have been returned to the Nigerian government.The artefacts, of Nok origin, which were found in the luggage of a French smuggler at a Paris airport, are believed to date back to around 2,500BC.

although their exact value has not been disclosed, the Nigerian tourism minister said it was a “big achievement” in the country’s campaign to recover its lost treasures from around the world.

“I feel extremely delighted,” said Edem Duke, who attended the ceremony to receive the sculptures from French embassy officials in Abuja.

Information Nigeria reports that the Nok culture is believed to have been highly advanced and appeared in Nigeria around 1000BC and went into extinction in mysterious circumstances around 500AD. Nok terracotta are mostly found in Kaduna state and Jos, north-central Nigeria.