Arts
Olugbile Holloway Named to TIME100 Art List of Most Influential People in Global Art
NCMM Director-General Olugbile Holloway has made the 2026 TIME100 Art list in the Leaders category for securing the repatriation of over 200 looted Nigerian artefacts.
Olugbile Holloway, the Director-General of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), has been named to TIME Magazine’s inaugural TIME100 Art list. The release highlights one hundred of the most influential figures shaping the future of art, spanning painters, sculptors, museum leaders, and advocates. Holloway was recognised in the Leaders category as a repatriation advocate for his work in securing the return of looted cultural artefacts to Nigeria.
His inclusion follows significant progress in reclaiming historical treasures stolen from Benin City in 1897, when British troops looted approximately 5,000 objects known as the Benin Bronzes. Holloway played a pivotal role in the transfer agreement signed in Leiden in February 2025, which paved the way for the physical return of 119 Benin Bronzes from the Netherlands in June 2025—marking the largest single repatriation of the artefacts to date. He subsequently ...