Netherlands returns recovered Ife terracotta head to Nigeria

A terracotta head, believed to be from Ile-Ife in Nigeria dating to between the 12th and 15th century AD , was intercepted by Dutch Customs at Schiphol Airport in 2018 and the government of the Netherlands has returned it to the Nigerian Embassy in the Netherlands in compliance with the 1970 UNESCO Convention (Netherlands returns recovered Ife terracotta head to Nigeria   November 4, 2020) It was in a package addressed "to a Dutch national" with forged accompanying import documents. Nigerian authorities confirmed the authenticity of the object and formally requested for its return. 

“The Ife terracotta head is the first formal return by the Netherlands to a State Party to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the means of prohibiting and preventing the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property. “The intercepted Terracotta object, which is approximately 16 cm tall, depicts a girl or young woman with her hair tightly braided in several buns. “A bump on the top left-sided of her head possibly represents an amulet braided into her hair.