Activists arrested attempting to remove Congolese statue from Dutch museum in restitution protest

Five activists were arrested on Thursday after attempting to remove a Congolese wooden funeral sculpture from the Afrika Museum in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Mwazulu Diyabanza and fellow protesters streamed their action live on Facebook as they tried to walk out with the statue, claiming they were recovering artworks acquired through colonial-era looting and violence. Dutch police intercepted them outside the museum. The institution stated it didn't initially prevent their exit to avoid damaging the sculpture, knowing police were nearby. This action follows Diyabanza's June attempt to take a 19th-century African funeral pole from Paris's Quai Branly Museum, which led to a French investigation. The Afrika Museum is among Dutch institutions that adopted principles last year for handling claims about collection origins, part of broader European debates over restitution of African artifacts taken during colonialism.