Black activists take Congolese statue from Dutch museum

A group of activists took a Congolese funeral statue from a Dutch museum, saying they were recovering art looted during the colonial era. The entire sequence of events was streamed on Facebook.

The activists were quickly arrested and the statue returned undamaged, the museum said Friday.

The Afrika Museum said in a statement that the statue was removed on Thursday from the museum located in Berg en Dal, near the eastern Dutch city of Nijmegen.

The incident came amid continuing anger at symbols of colonialism and slavery in the United States and Europe after George Floyd's death in police custody -- leading to global protests against racial injustice.

The statue action in the Netherlands came the day that prosecutors in neighbouring Belgium said that a tooth presumed to be from Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba would soon be handed back to his relatives after years of lobbying efforts.

The said Facebook livestream ended with police handcuffing one of the activists on a road near the museum.