In Benin, a 'katakl' a ceremonial stool, and the final piece of the royal treasure of Abomey has been returned by Finland, 133 years after being looted by French troops and later transferred to the National Museum of Finland. It's a journey that began with an investigation triggered by an RFI journalist.

The katakl is a three-legged royal chair from Dahomey,aWest Africankingdomlocated within present-dayBeninthat existed from 1600 until 1904.

It wasdiscovered to be at the National Museum of Finland, theKansallismuseo, thanks to a lengthy investigation by art historian Marie-Ccile Zinsou, of theZinsou foundation,one of the museum's curators,Pilvi Vainonenand RFI journalist Pierre Firtion.

Thekatakl was returned to Benin by Finland on Tuesday, with Finnish minister of culture Mari-Leena Talvitie handing it over to the Beninese authorities during a ceremony at the Marina Palace, the presidential residence in Cotonou, Benin.

A whispered clue

The first 26 pieces of the treasure were returned to Benin in November2021 by the Paris'sMuse du Quai Branly.

The museum, along with the French Ministry of Culture, had announcedthe restitution of 26 worksfrom the royal treasury in Abomey in 2018, as approved by President Emmanuel Macron.

These pieces were looted in 1892 by French Colonel Alfred-Amde Dodds during the sacking of the city of Abomey, after the Second Franco-Dahomean War, taken from the royal place.

Despite housing approximately 70,000 African objects, the Quai Branly returned this limited restitution of 26 pieces thanks to a specific French law, passed in December 2020, which allowed for exceptions to the principle of inalienability of public collections for them and for a separate item, returned to Senegal.

Among them were anthropomorphic royal statues, recades (a type of sceptre associated with Dahomey), the gates of the royal palace of Abomey, thrones, seats,and a first katakl.

'Dahomey' film invites colonial past to speak through Benin's stolen treasures

RFI's Firtion was in Cotonou in November 2021 covering the restitution of the 26 royal objects, when asource whispered to him: "There aren't 26, but 27 treasures."

"What if it was true?" he asked himself, as he recalls in aFrench-language podcast serieson the story.

Soon after, Firtion joined forces withZinsou andVainonen, delving into texts on Beninese art and the restitution of works of art to Africa.

Lost in storage

He discovered that this katakl had arrived at the Trocadro Museum of Ethnography in Paris at the end of the 19th century.

Then in 1939, the museum, by then renamed theMuse de l'Homme, agreed to an exchange with the National Museum of Finland a common practice at the time.

The Muse de l'Homme wanted to enrich its collection of Finno-Ugric objects from everyday life, and in exchange sent around 40 objects to Helsinki, mainly from Africa and Asia. Among the lot was the katakl.

It was never exhibited, instead ending up in the storage rooms of the National Museum of Finland, where it remained for decades. Over time, curators lost track of it, as it was listed as belonging to Dahomey.

In the online inventories of the Muse du Quai Branly, Firtion identified a piece donated by Colonel Dodds to the Trocadro Ethnography Museum, which was not returned to Benin... a three-legged stool, called a katakl.

The journalist also travelled to Marseille'sMucemmuseum in 2024, where the pieces potentially exchanged with Finland for the katakl in 1939 were being stored and where he learned that theexchanged pieces still belonged to the museum originally owning them.

After intensive research on her side, Vainonen got back to Firtion and told him it had been found in Finland.

A wider debateon restitution

Benins request for restitution is not an isolated one.

As early as 1973, the president of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC), Mobutu Sese Seko, was the first to speak at the United Nations General Assembly, calling for the countrys culturalheritage to be returnedto it.

Since then, a growing number of African countries includingEgypt, Ghana, Ethiopia and Nigeria have called for works of art and priceless artefacts to be returned.

In 2021, Belgium handed the government of the DRC an inventory of 84,000 Congolese artefacts dating from the colonial period although their return hasn't taken place yet.

Netherlands agrees to return 119 Benin statues to Nigeria

Germanyhanded 22 artefacts looted in the 19th century back to Nigeria at a ceremony in the capital, Abuja, in December 2022.In February this year, the Netherlands agreed to return 119 Benin bronze statues to Nigeria.

Two British universities began returning pieces to Nigeria around the same time:theUniversity of Aberdeen,which returned Benin bronzesin 2021 andCambridge University, in 2022.

Originally published on RFI