Glasgow will return Indian antiquities to ‘rightful owners’

GLASGOW will be the first UK museum service to return Indian cultural artefacts to the descendants of their rightful owners.

Six of the original artefacts were stolen from temples and shrines in different states in northern India during British colonial rule in the 19th century while a seventh was illegally purchased as a result of theft from the owner.

Glasgow Life Museums is working with the High Commission of India in London to return the antiquities and is thought to be a first for a UK museum. All seven objects were gifted to Glasgow museums.

It comes after a delegation from Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) visited the city’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum last Friday to discuss the repatriation of Benin bronzes.

Professor Abba Isa Tijani, director general of the NCMM, and Babatunde Adebiyi, the NCMM’s legal adviser, were invited to the city to discuss the transfer of ownership and future dates for the return of the artefacts. It was arranged following Glasgow City Council’s approval that 51 items held in museum collections across the city should be returned to Nigeria, India and the Cheyenne River and Oglala Sioux tribes in South Dakota, United States.

Glasgow will return 25 Lakota cultural items that were sold and donated to Glasgow’s museums by George Crager, an interpreter for the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show who visited the city in 1892. These will be handed back to South Dakota-based descendants of the late Marcella LeBeau, a Lakota elder, politician, nurse and military veteran who died last year.

Duncan Dornan, head of museums and collections at Glasgow Life, which manages the city’s museums, said: “The visit to Glasgow by the NCMM delegation marks an important milestone for the city, as it continues its positive history of repatriation by returning the Benin bronzes to their rightful owners. Glasgow Life Museums is committed to being transparent about such artefacts’ origins and how they came into the city’s possession.”