Nigeria could borrow back its plundered Benin Bronzes - governor

Art works are displayed for sale in a shop on Igun street in Benin City, Edo state, Nigeria June 13, 2018. Picture taken June 13, 2018. REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye

BENIN CITY, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria could be open to borrowing its plundered Benin Bronzes back from Western museums rather than demanding a full return, officials said, a compromise that might provide a template for settling other bitter disputes over colonial-era loot.

British soldiers seized thousands of metal castings from the then separate Kingdom of Benin in 1897, one of a series of acts of plunder that have long tainted relations between London and the territories where its agents held sway in the 19th century.