Cutting-edge labs, a rainforest gallery and guesthouse: Nigeria to open art museum for 21st century

With a campus-style layout inspired by ancient Benin City, the Museum of West African Art has the potential ‘to be amongst the best in the world for holding returning objects’

Benin City in modern-day Nigeria was once the capital of a bustling kingdom which left a magnificent artistic legacy of plaques and sculpture in cast bronze which were looted by British colonial forces in 1897.

Now, as an increasing number of western museums are returning artefacts, or pledging to repatriate them, the south Nigerian city is getting a new museum that will put to rest the idea that “Africa has no space and capacity to look after its heritage,” says Shadreck Chirikure, professor of archaeological science at the University of Oxford, and adviser to the new museum.