France to return Nigeria's stolen artifacts: ambassador

The French Ambassador to Nigeria, Denys Gauer, said on Wednesday his country would continue to repatriate stolen artifacts from France back to the country.

Gauer made this known in Abuja, the country's capital city on the sideline of the celebration of the International Museums Day Celebration.

The ambassador said the just repatriated NOK Terracotta may not have much monetary value but has a lot of cultural value.

"Monetary value doesn't mean much; it has cultural value; monetary value can change overtime but cultural value will always remain for Nigeria's cultural development," he said.

He said the NOK Terracotta just presented to the minister of information and culture was the fourth time his country was doing that.

"Presently, we do not have a Nigeria's artifacts in France; any time we discover them, we will bring them back to Nigeria; this is the fourth time we are doing such," he added.

"In fact, the two NOK Terracotta earlier mentioned was discovered in Paris by French customs officers; these artifacts were only a transit in France," he said.

"It was sent from Togo with the U. S. as destination but French Customs intercepted them which appeared clearly as cultural element," the envoy told reporters.

"We met the experts on the artifacts and it appears that it was coming from central Nigeria; that was why we decided to bring it back to Nigeria," Gauer said.

Nigeria and France had signed conventions against illicit trafficking of cultural status or object. Endit