France prepares to return Benin treasures

A visitor looks at wooden royal statues of the Dahomey kingdom, dated 19th century, at Quai Branly museum in Paris (AP)

A Paris museum is displaying 26 looted colonial-era artefacts for one last time before France returns them home to Benin.

The wooden anthropomorphic statues, royal thrones and sacred altars were pilfered by the French army in the 19th century from Western Africa.